Former vice president and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party for the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar has highlighted his plans to revamp the Nigeria’s power sector.
In a statement on Thursday, Atiku said his power restructuring plan, as detailed in his policy document was the best for Nigeria.
He said having keenly observed developments in the power sector within the last 24 hours, he was again convinced of his planned solution to the electricity crisis.He said that the solution as encapsulated in his Policy Document titled ‘My Covenant with Nigerians’, remains the most proactive plan to lead Nigeria out of darkness.
The former vice president said his approach, if elected as president, was to first remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and give states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves.
“An industrial dispute with the Federal Government in Abuja should not affect an industry in Lagos or a factory in Aba or in Kano or even an average Nigerian who just wants to get home, watch the news and sleep under a ceiling fan.
“Secondly, my policy shall aim at achieving greater coordination of investments in the entire electricity value chain.
“Investments in additional generation capacity are futile without consideration for the complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to wheel the additional energy.
“Any investment in additional generation capacity would be competitively procured, considering a viable mix of renewable (hydro, solar, wind and biofuels) and non-renewable (coal, gas) options for energy security.”
Atiku said that the third solution would be that ahead of procuring additional generation, both transmission and distribution capacities would be enhanced with government and private sector support for investments.
In that regard, Abubakar said that he would incentivise private investors to invest in the development of multiple green-field mini-grid transmission systems to be looped into the super-grip in the medium to long term.
This according to him would be done while allowing the Federal Government to focus on policy, regulation and standardisation.
Abubakar said that his aspiration to be President was to protect the interest of the average Nigerian in all circumstances
“On this, I stand to say that I have no interest either directly or indirectly in any generation company, as has been publicly revealed.”
