It’s painful for Nigerians to sink N2.7tn for darkness in 16yrs — Speaker

An indication has emerged for a possible review of all payments made in the last 16 years for power sector development considering the volume of generation, transmission and distribution in the country. This was the confession of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday.

The total injection of funds to the sector since 1999 currently stood at N2.7tn according to statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

While decrying that no appreciable change has been observed, he fingered the entire privatisation of the sector as faulty and unproductive given the level of services so far.

Making a remark in Abuja at the opening of a stakeholders’ dialogue on the ‘Nigerian Power Challenge: A Legislative Intervention’, Dogara argued that Nigerians must again begin to ask questions as it would appear that every effort made to rescue the sector went up in the air without any thing to show for them.

To the Speaker of House of Representatives, “Perhaps, the most important question is what happened to the N2.74tn spent on the sector from 1999 to 2015?

“Why is it that the more we spend on the power sector, the more darkness we attract?

“Why are most of the companies licensed by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission not able to start their projects?”

Before now, several stakeholders have called for review of the privatization exercise, saying it was designed to permanently give darkness to Nigerians.