Power: Why saboteurs don’t want Jonathan to succeed, by Doyin Okupe

sabo­tage government efforts. As I am speaking with you, I have spoken to the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Hold­ing Company, James Olotu , and he told me that majority of the NIPP power plants, commissioned or not, are just there and not functional; they are not working. Not be­cause they are defective but because they are not connected to gas plants. They can only be made to work if you supply them gas.

This means we have a huge investment of over $16 billion dollars, lying down, fully completed but saboteurs are about to kill the dream. This is the major reason, the president has not delivered on interrupted power supply. Our major thrust has been on gas for energy supply. We have NIPP plants that can produce 5,000 mega watts but are being thrown out because some evil people have decided to punish Nigeri­ans and give the president a bad name. We have installed power plants with installed capacity of 7,000, 7,500 mega watts. That is if everything had been working well without disturbances, vandals and sabo­tage, we would have been generating over 300 per cent of what we would have been generating since 2011.This unemployment we talk about, would have been taken care of.

These people are harming, not only the president but also the Nigerian people and trying to kill the Nigerian dream. We have an installed capacity of 4,000 mega watts, lying in waste and untapped somewhere because some people have decided that it must be so for their selfish and political reasons.

But what is the Federal Government doing to salvage the situation?  Or has the FG succumbed to the whims and ca­prices of these “evil” politicians?

President Goodluck Jonathan has re­leased funds for the repair of the vandalised pipelines nationwide. Also, the president has mobilised security agencies, including the military to combat pipeline vandalism in the same way they are combating terror­ism. It is now a major battle. It is a national security affair now.  Government is not go­ing to leave any stone unturned in ensuring that we stop this. The perpetrators will be brought to book. The sum of $1 billion has been released to prosecute this war, includ­ing oil theft, pipeline vandalism and others.

But would this “war” against vandals and saboteurs not affect innocent Nige­rians in term of power supply?

It is expected that within the next six to eight weeks, that will be the lowest low period in terms of power supply in Nige­ria. We can’t go below this and we will not go below it. We will just have to turn and move up. Within the next six weeks, the repairs will be completed and we will be­gin to see the effect of some of the repairs, as more NIPP projects are being brought on stream. Power failure will ease. Efforts are also being made by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to increase and improve on local gas supply to the NIPP projects.

The Federal Gov­ernment has also issued directives on the domestic need. The gas we use as export is different from the one we use at home. What we export is liquefied natural gas. But now, NNPC is working on standby ar­rangement that the nation does not suffer when there is vandalism. What Govern­ment and NNPC are doing now is to use the LNG with a conversion plant close to the NIPP projects. It will be gathered and treated to power the gas plant. Government is trying to ensure they are available close to the NIPP projects. We can also supple­ment from export market and bring into use. I am very sure the promise of 18 to 19 hours of uninterrupted power supply will be enjoyed by Nigerians in major cities of Nigeria.

How do you solve the issue of poor prosecution and the need for special court for prosecution of vandals?

Yes, it has to be part of the war. We have to show deterrent. The mood of the Presi­dency now is to do everything possible to checkmate those behind these evil acts. And that will include protecting the gas pipeline and arresting those hell bent on destroying them.