The Senate on Wednesday confirmed the
nominations of Prof. Chinedu Nebo and Kabiru Taminu Turaki as ministers
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after subjecting them to a screening
session of questions and answers.
Both nominees in their
separate sessions on the floor of the Senate, spoke on issues bordering
on security, power, education and politics.
Nebo from Enugu State, who was former Vice Chancellor of the University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, while speaking on the challenges in the power
sector, said “uninterrupted power supply is not a mirage.”
He
noted that with the unbundling of the Power Holding Company, there were a
lot of opportunities for improvements in the power sector.
Nebo said, “Looking at what Nigeria is trying to do, we are planning to
generate 40,000 megawatts by 2020, but when you look at the capacity of
Nigeria to absorb electricity, that will not be enough.”
He
said there was the need for more IPPs to be involved, arguing that with
increased opportunities, even those who lost out in the bidding process
of the sale of PHCN, could start their own infrastructure in
participating in power generation, transmission and distribution.
On dealing with alleged ‘mafia’ group in the power sector, Nebo noted
that God would empower him to chase out the mafia, which he termed
“demons and witches.”
He said, “Some highly placed Nigerians believe that when there is outage, it is caused by witches and demons.
“If the President deploys me in the power sector, I believe that given
my performance at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where I drove out
the witches and demons, God will also give me the power to drive out the
demons in the power sector.”
He lamented that while South
Africa generates 40,000 megawatts for its 40million population, Nigeria
is still battling with 4,000 megawatts for about 170 million of her
people.
Turaki on his part, called for the training of the
military deployed for assignments in terrorists prone areas of the
country to enable them to relate well with civil authorities.
He said the problem of insecurity could be tackled through a close
collaboration between the agencies, while shunning inter agency rivalry.
He expressed support for the deployment of troops to Mali, saying that
the funding and training for insurgents in the country are located in
Mali.
“Nigeria should attack the base of the terrorists in
Mali, because only Niger stands between Nigeria and Mali. If we don’t
join other nations to fight the terrorists in Mali, they can find their
way into Niger and then into Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking on the
decay in the Police Force, Turaki noted that “the problems facing the
Nigerian Police are so legendary. The decay had gone on for so long a
time. It is easy to destroy, but rebuilding will take some more time.”
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Witches, demons hindering electricity reform –Nebo
04:16
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