Fashola lists condition for stable power supply, el-Rufai calls for restructure of NERC.

By Lola SERIKI- IDAHOSA, Kaduna

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola on Thursday  gave three new  conditions in which Nigerians could enjoy uninterrupted electricity  supply in the country.

The Minister,  who spoke to journalists in  Kaduna at the end of the second edition of National Council on Power, said unless  Nigerians stop vandalising  pipelines, the epileptic power supply would persist.

This is just as the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai called  for   proper restructuring of National Electricity Regulatory commission (NERC) with credible people to ensure viable power supply in the country.

The governor governor said unless that was  done potential energy private investors will
 continue to shy away from investing in the  sector.

El-rufai  lamented the  poor regulatory policy framework of the power sector noting that  currently the distributing companies DISCOS has huge debt.

 The governor who passed vote of confidence on the minister of Power,Works and Housing,Babatunde Fashola, to fix the power urged the minister of power to take drastic steps to address the policy plan  of
 the ministry to ensure stable and uninterrupted power supply in the
 country.

He said, "One of the reasons why it has fail in my opinion while communication and telecommunication sector have succeeded is because of the kind of people that where appointed to be the regulators of the Nigeria
 electricity regulatory commission."

 He noted  that, then at the Bureau of  Public Enterprise,BPE , measures  were taken to train people that will be the foundation staff of the agency: "But unfortunately those that came after us politicize the appointments and put people that lack the capacity, The knowledge or the competence to regulate the sector as well as for instance the telecom sector has been regulated."

El-Rufai then appealed to the Minister  to ensure that people appointed to NERC to be professionals without any political linkages.

He said, "That's is the only way the sector will attract private investment, and we all know that we can not solve electricity problems with government  money alone, we need private investment,

" we couldn't solve the telecoms problems with Nitel alone even after sinking billions of  dollar,

"We had to open out the sector to have independent regulators, MTN,
 Econet, Glo and everyone came and now every Nigerian has a phone"he
 said

Stable electricity, the Minister argued  was  when Nigeria contractors award contract to build distribution access and built it properly.
 Well.

The third condition, the Minister noted when communities who host these electricity assets also understand that they must sacrifices so that the nation could  benefit.

Fashola said, "So that communities will stop chasing contractors, threaten the with shrines, spiritual invocation, taken law into their hands and cutting down transmission assets."

According to the Minister, Nigerians should understand that "electricity has to be produce like all other matters that produce such as newspapers, foods and others,"  to gain stable electricity.

 He added that  production of the affirmations,   comes with costs that must be paid for.