The federal government has engaged military forces to protect electricity assets and combat vandalism, following a proposal for severe penalties against offenders.
The minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who made this known in Abuja, emphasised the urgency of addressing vandalism, which undermines efforts to provide stable electricity.
Speaking while receiving members of the Civil-Military Committee on Energy Security, in his office, said that the issue of vandalism has been a major concern to the federal government, particularly on critical national assets.
He added that the matter is being handled with all the seriousness it deserves. He challenged Nigerians to take ownership of such national assets as continuous debasing of such national assets would continue to retard the nation’s development and efforts to provide electricity to Nigerians.
He urged citizens to take ownership of national assets, highlighting that the government is committed to improving power generation, aiming to increase output from 5,000 to 6,000 megawatts by year-end.
The minister said that to demonstrate the commitment of the federal government to providing electricity to Nigerians, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assented to the legislation to deregulate the power sector, thereby making the sector free of the encumbrances that had hindered its efficient performance.
“This meeting with you today is very important and critical to us all. We must let the vandals know that it will never be business as usual. We all know what these vandals have done to our national asset. Daily, they deprive us of providing stable and affordable electricity to homes, industries, and to all critical sectors of our economy. That cannot continue and that is what we are determined to achieve.
“As a critical stakeholder, we appreciate your concern and the effort you have put in to help us secure our assets. Let me say here that power is instrumental to all we do and the protection of its infrastructure should be the greatest concern of all of us as Nigerians”, the minister said.
As part of efforts to improve and build on existing infrastructure, Adelabu disclosed that he has taken measures to discard old structures that successive governments have ignored in addressing the problems with power supply to Nigerians.
“It is shameful for a nation of over 200 million people to still be on 5,000 megawatts of electricity at this age. Let me tell you that some of the transformers we are still using today are 64 years old. How do you want to give you what you desire at this age? Those maintaining them do not even understand them again. This is a reflection of the actions and inactions of the past 60 years. We have not done what is right in this sector in the past 60 years and that is what we are correcting now.
“So, it is the desire of President Tinubu to move away from this narrative and give Nigerians what they deserve in terms of energy and power supply and that is what we are set to achieve in the ministry now. We want to eradicate energy poverty among Nigerians. Our focus now is to engender a new energy development for Nigeria that will make electricity available to all Nigerians, where they reside.
“The power sector is a priority to this government and when we get it right here, all other sectors will also get it right”, he said.
The minister commended members of the group for their patriotism, zeal and commitment to safeguarding the nation’s assets and admonished them to continue in that spirit. He also promised the ministry’s co-operation and collaboration with them in their assignment. He said the protection of the nation’s assets should be the collective responsibility of all Nigerians.
He intimated the group of the ministry’s mandate and how those mandates would be realised in the new dispensation. Adelabu also told them that part of the challenges the ministry is facing is the refusal of some Nigerians to pay for the electricity they consumed while some others by- pass their meters thereby not paying for what they consumed. He described such power theft as not helpful to the transformation that the Federal Government desires in the power sector.
Speaking about the ministry’s activities in the last one year of taking over power, the minister informed the group that within his one year in office, he had been able to increase generation from 4,000 that he inherited to over 5,000 megawatts.
“By August 21, I will be in office for one year. Due to the policy initiative that President Tinubu has put in place and which we have vigorously pursued, we have been able to increase our megawatts from 4,000 that we inherited to 5,000. We are moving and we will get better as we move ahead. But Nigerians must cooperate with us. We have consumers who refuse to pay their bills. We have the issue of power theft. All these must stop as we intensify our efforts to serve Nigerians better”, he said.
The leader of the group, Adams Otako said the importance of the energy sector in the nation’s development motivated their desire to embark on their effort to provide security for such national assets.
According to him, the committee was formed in 2019 and they have devoted their time towards guarding the assets of the country in their little way.
“We believe that the energy sector is the bedrock of national security. Guarding it is a collective responsibility and we want to also tell Nigerians that until we begin the ownership of governance, we cannot develop. If the power sector does not function properly, we cannot function maximally as a nation and as a people.
“We also realised that a lot of your engagements and policies are often misunderstood by people. We want you to take us along, so that in such circumstances, we can relay the truth and say, ‘stop that propaganda’.
“We are made up of patriotic Nigerians. When we wanted to form the committee, we approached the defence headquarters and that is why you can see that we have virtually all the security agencies present among us. We also have as our member the National Orientation Agency (NOA) . We have the Civil Defence, the State Security Department, the Fire Service, and other civil society groups among us” Otako said.
