 |
| LAGOS can supply uninterrupted Electricity if allowed-Fashola. |
I remember 4 years ago,Goodluck Jonathan saying their will be uninterrupted power in the country by the end of the year.Well,we all know what happened.It was just an empty boast and promised to stay in power.Sadly Nigerians don't hold their leaders accountable.Goodluck Jonathan is not the only leader guilty of this.We have had loads in Nigeria.Like Governor Fashola said,Nigeria is the only oil and gas producing nation that
doesn't supply uninterrupted power to its people!
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, revealed this last Wednesday,while commissioning the 8.8 Megawatts, MW, Mainland Independent Power Project, MIPP, expected to supply constant power to both Federal and state government establishments, just as it was revealed that Lagos would need 200,000 energy technicians to address its power challenge.
The MIPP project which is the fourth power plant to be commissioned by the present administration has been assisting the state government to conserve and save tax payers’ money.
The capital intensive project, power plant was achieved through a Public Private Partnership between the Lagos State Government and a consortium of Mainland Power Limited, CET Power and Solad Electric Limited.
MIPP would serve agencies like; Lagos State Electricity Board, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Area F Police Command, the High Court, the Office of the Chief Judge, the Code of Conduct Bureau, the State Water Corporation, the Old Secretariat complex, the State Ministry of Housing Estate and Eko Engineering Limited.
Others include; street lights covering a stretch of 20 kilometres from the Old Secretariat, the Ikeja Flyover, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Agege Motor Road, Ikorodu Road, Jibowu to Maryland, Palm Avenue in Mushin and Ikeja GRA.
According to Fashola, “the federal government who promised steady power supply in the past four years have shown that its best is simply not good enough having failed to deliver on its promise.”
He described the successful completion of the MIPP as a demonstration of the state government’s efforts to ensure that it fulfil its promise to the people.
Lagos capable of generating steady power supply if…
Fashola stated that the state government has operated within its limits and has clearly demonstrated that delivery of steady power supply is indeed possible.
According to him, “If tomorrow, the National Assembly legislates that states should generate and distribute power, a state like Lagos will conveniently generate its own electricity and distribute same to its residents”.
While stressing that many lessons were learned from the success which Lagos State made of its Independent Power Plants, Fashola noted with regrets that Nigeria is the only country with oil and gas that is without steady electricity. “Nations like Gabon, Ghana which also have oil and gas in Africa do not have electricity problem just as the whole of Europe depends on Russia for her gas supplies but has never experienced electricity difficulties.”
He reiterated that when the administration gave a commitment that the Mainland Independent Power Project would be commissioned in 2014, it was conscious that it must be accomplished adding that the promise was made then from an informed position.
By Olasunkanmi AloniVanguard