Against the backdrop of the long-running epileptic power supply in Nigeria, Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has disclosed how he intends to proffer a lasting solution to the power shortage if elected president come 2023.
According to the economic agenda, which was released by the Director of Media and Communication of his Campaign Organization, Bayo Onanuga, following his declaration as the winner of the APC primary on Tuesday, Tinubu said he would increase Nigeria’s power generation from 5, 000 MW to 15, 000 MW.
The economic agenda also stated that Tinubu plans to guarantee 24 hours steady power supply for the country.
This was coming on the heels of his emergence as the APC presidential flag bearer in the 2023 general election and his economic plan for Nigeria.
The national leader of the APC had polled 1271 votes to defeat his arch contenders including a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who had 316 votes and the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo who garnered 235 votes.
In his victory speech, following his declaration as the winner of the APC primary in Abuja on Tuesday, Tinubu had said, “We need to build a Nigeria where sufficient jobs for the urban population are available and lead to a good life that most wholly benefits the nation.”
An apparently roaring Tinubu also expressed confidence to deliver when he said, “So, I ask you: Do we dare reform our national economy such that prosperity grows as poverty vanishes? Yes, we dare.”
Over the years, Nigeria has been faced with challenges regarding making real progress in raising power generation and supply, which has hindered the country’s economic productivity and growth.
Earlier, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu had blamed the outage and the collapse of the national grid on maintenance problems and gas shortages.
Acknowledging the problems facing Nigeria, Tinubu had also said, “Yes, we face serious problems. But I believe that we have it within us to reach our finest destiny. With help from God, we shall make this nation better for the generations to come.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria, as an African giant, is endowed with large oil, gas, hydro and solar resources, and it has the potential to generate 12,522 MW of electric power from existing plants, according to the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.
If Tinubu becomes President in 2023 and implements this economic blueprint on power, with the required maintenance and monitoring, it will undoubtedly influence an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 12% as projected by Tinubu.
But, analysts have posited that Nigerians should begin to interrogate the economic agenda of the presidential candidates from the point of view of realistic policy formulation, approvals and timelines.
Speaking on the Tinubu economic agenda, Human resource professional and economy analyst, Abayomi Fawehinmi noted that this plan may not be achievable in the first year.
“It’s a good goal. It’s a good ambition, but what I know is that it’s not going to happen in the first year.”
Economists have also expressed fear that the poor power supply may persist across Nigeria, especially in 2022, if the government fails to address the various challenges confronting the nation’s power sector, which include gas-related issues, according to industry statistics.
If elected president, Tinubu would need to address the challenge of huge debt and equity servicing challenges, operation and maintenance barriers, dearth of new investments, poor credit rating and poor business viability image to investors, the dismal outlook of the power sector among other challenges.
But, if his government is able to proffer a lasting solution, it would dramatically overturn the electricity outage, boost ease of doing business, with a sigh of relief on millions of Nigerians struggling to keep up with their daily activities and restore confidence in emerging markets. Continue Reading
