Former Minister of Power, Suleiman Bello, on Thursday, said that one of the major problems in the power sector is the incompetence of ministers appointed to man the sector over the years.
Bello told the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Power during the ongoing power probe that another problem was that the ministers appointed were usually given a short period of time to work.
He added that although there is no doubt that privatization was a good step, the 2005 Environmental Protection Regulation Act (EPR) must also be reviewed from time to time.
“One of the major problems of the Nigeria power sector is the incompetence and lack of knowledge of the sector by the ministers appointed to run the sector and the short time (less than two years in the past decade) that the ministers are given to run the sector.
“Acts such as the EPR Act (2005) must be reviewed from time to time as is the case in other countries where such attempt at privatisation were made.
“Acts cannot decide how this nation should be run. This is a nation trying to get 5000 MW. For ten yrs the argument has been how to sell 3000 MW.
“This is the only country that spends billions every year,” he said.
However, Bello stressed that the nation constantly talks about increasing generation but has not given a clear cut initiative on how to achieve this.
He went ahead to say that it was easier for new technology to be deployed in the telecoms sector following the liberalization of the sector because licenses were given to investors to start from scratch without necessarily unbundling Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and selling it.
He also complained that the nation keeps saying there is no money in the power sector meanwhile the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gave the sum of 220 billion naira for the reform of the power sector.
Meanwhile, he urged that credibility and competence must be shown to attract investors in the power sector.
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