PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan and the presidential candidates of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Malam Nuhu Ribadu have openly disagreed on the best way to tackle the problems in the power sector and boost electricity supply in the country.
For Jonathan, the best measure is to allow privatisation to sweep the power industry, and involvement of private firms in the development of the sector.
But Buhari and Ribadu believe that corruption is the bane of the crisis in the power sector and so the best way to redress the problem in the sector is to adopt a radical approach to the crusade against corruption.
At a presidential debate organised by a coalition of youths under the umbrella of “ The People’s Senate”, Jonathan, Buhari and Ribadu who spoke through their representatives seized the opportunity to sell their programmes to Nigerians.
Jonathan’s representative and co-ordinator of Jonathan-Sambo Youth Organisation known as Youths for Transformation, Mr. Uche Chuta, argued that complete deregulation of the power sector would make it easier to access the large sum of money required to fund the projects in that industry.
According to him, Nigeria required another $10 billion to be able to achieve considerable measure of progress in the power sector.
But Ribadu’s spokesman, Mr. Sunday Ogidigbo, countered, saying that the problem militating against regular supply of power is the abuse of the huge financial resources that had been injected into the power industry.
“We spent $17 billion in the last 12 years in the effort to achieve regular supply of electricity, but no significant progress has been recorded. South Africa spent only $3 billion and had generated 5000 megawatts. How do we explain this huge gap in expenditure and achievement? ” he queried.
Also, the representative of Gen. Buhari, Mr. Adeolu Akinyemi, was full of lamentations that Nigeria has not been forthcoming in the drive towards regular supply of electricity. He said if Buhari is voted into power, the fight against corruption would be revived and used to sanitize the sector.
On economy, Buhari promised to return the country to the position of regional economy which existed before the advent of oil boom.
According to him, the system would encourage each region to deepen its economic base by tapping and nurturing the economic resources within its area.
But Ribadu vowed to wage war against what he described as a regime of fiscal rascality that had resulted in a free fall of the economy, adding that he would reverse the trend in which 70 per cent of annual budget is spent on recurrent expenditure.
Jonathan refused to agree with the postulation that the economy is suffering a free fall, pointing out that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ranks third highest in Africa.
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