The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has declared that the 2017 Census will help the Federal Government to address the poor electricity supply in the country.
Fashola told journalists in Awka, the Anambra State capital at the weekend that his ministry has mapped out a three-pronged strategy to deal with power problems in the country.
He said that the strategies have been divided into short, medium and long-term while the census would help to properly enumerate power usage and allocation in the country.
The minister said that the census would be part of the medium-term plan, while increasing power in the grids is the short-term arrangement.
His words: “We are here to get the job done and get life better for the people of Anambra and the South East. Our work in power is three pronged; short term, medium term and long term. In the short term we want to achieve incremental power, the power we have now is not enough.
“Unfortunately, as we are gaining power in some places, expanding power in some transmission and the transmission grid can now take 7,000 megawatts, but we are losing power generation to gas sabotage and vandalism.
“Today, when we can evacuate 7,000, but we don’t have the gas to fire those turbines, that is why the Vice President visited the place (Niger Delta) to speak with them. Now the price of petrol has gone up to $56, so we should take the opportunity to produce more, More fuel means more gas, and more gas means more power.
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