Why Yemi Osinbanjo visited the Niger Delta – Fashola

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.