The House of Representatives Committee on Power,says many Nigerians were paying for electricity that they did not consume.
Its chairman, Magaji Aliyu, who disclosed this when he led some committee members to the Annual General Meeting/Awards ceremony of the Association of Rural Electrification Contractors of Nigeria,also said infighting among members of the executive arm of government and political intrigues in Nigeria are key issues stalling the growth of the power sector, members of the House of Representatives have said.
He said: “I believe that there are political machinations not to allow power grow in this country. There are machinations to interfere with the power sector generally. We have multidimensional problems.”
The legislator said the sector was faced with power distribution, generation and transmission problems, stressing that some organisations were created under the power ministry without the knowledge of the minister.
Aliyu added: “In this country, we still do what they call ‘take or pay’. Nigerians are paying for the electricity they did not take. We are paying for it. This is a very serious issue.
“But there must be a desired formula that the politics of it must allow the Ministry of Power to drive power process in this country. There are agencies that are supposed to be under the power ministry but they don’t report to the ministry now.”
He stated that the legislators would continue to engage the government, as several letters had been written to executive members and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on the need to make things work.
Speaking, the National Chairman, ARECON, Innocent Uchenna, said Nigeria had been struggling to distribute 5,000 megawatts of electricity despite the trillions of naira which the Federal Government had sunk into the sector.
