Abubakar Aliyu, minister of power, says Nigeria was “in
slumber” for over 30 years until President Muhammadu Buhari took over in 2015.
Buhari had, in September, sacked Saleh Mamman as the
minister of power and replaced him with Aliyu, who was minister of state for
works and housing.
Speaking on Monday when he featured on ‘Good Morning
Nigeria’, a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the minister
said foreigners are now willing to invest in the country as the federal
government has provided opportunities in the power sector.
He also said the Nigeria international partnership forum,
which held recently in Paris, was an opportunity to present the achievements of
the current government and to attract foreign investment in all sectors.
“If you look back, our development plans in the seventies,
the government was determined to invest in infrastructure, security and other
areas of development. But unfortunately, we did not keep pace with the growing
population. This led to the deterioration of our infrastructure since we have
not given enough attention to it,” he said.
“Now, it is safe to say that Nigeria had gone into slumber
for over 30 years until the present government came in. Yes, the whole sector.
“In fact, I participated in a panel where we talked about
general infrastructure, power, road, transportation, airport, railway and other
sectors. We needed to tell them what we have been doing; the reforms the
country is undergoing in all the sectors — reforms on laws, regulations and
things like that.
“So, these are the things we were able to showcase and what
this present government is doing since coming on board in 2015.
“In the area of roads for example, we were able to tell them
the road infrastructure is undergoing serious development.
“Over 13,000 kilometres of roads are undergoing construction
with over 850 road constructions going on, and there are also gaps where they
can come in and fill the present investment opportunities and the reforms going
on in the power sector.
“The whole value chain is transforming but the government
cannot do it alone. So, we need them to go in and partner with us. It is a
different government now; it’s not like it used to be.”
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