Buhari Inherited A Reckless Privatization Of The Power Sector From Jonathan But Has Made It Better – Garba Shehu

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Buhari Inherited A Reckless Privatization Of The Power Sector From Jonathan But Has Made It Better – Garba Shehu

The Senior Special Assitant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Garba Shehu has declared that his principal has performed incredibly in making the nation’s power sector better.

He stated that more could have been done about power generation in Nigeria but the “reckless privatization” of the sector which it inherited from the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan has hampered it and stakeholders from executing some of their good intentions.

He also argued that the privatization of the power sector in 2013 by the previous administration was done for political reasons and not in the best interest of Nigerians.

Shehu who spoke on Friday during an interview with Channels TV Sunrise Daily, however, said despite the obvious challenges, the Buhari administration has increased power generation to about 13,000 megawatts from the 2,500 it inherited.

He said not only the generation but also the distribution has improved under the Buhari government and Nigerians can boast of an improved power supply despite “situations on ground.”

“The situation on ground constrained the government and the party from delivering as much more than what we have. As we speak today we have doubled power availability in the country,” he said.

“In terms of generation, it has improved 200 times. We have the capacity to generate more than 13,000 of power. The uptake is up to 5,000 as we speak now. That is not the best but it’s an improvement on the 2,500 megawatts that we inherited.

“We aspire to do 20,000 or 30,000 megawatts of power, we haven’t done that but we have launched 19,000 availability. It’s remarkable, why don’t we look inwards and use out the 13,000 that are available. A lot of power is generated and wasted in some cases.

“This government inherited a reckless privatization process, which the president said in the interview that it was largely driven by the need to gratify political interest.”