The common destiny of Nigerians is being threatened by the lack of electricity, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has said.
Nebo stated that with the increasing population in the country, there was the need for reinforcement of forces to avert the looming threat to Nigeria’s future as a result of inadequate power supply.
The minister said the recent disqualification of some students by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board over deficiencies in Information and Communication Technology would not have occurred if there was adequate electricity supply to rural dwellers. Continue...
According to him, adequate supply of power would have helped to expose the affected students to the use of computers and information technology.
Nebo, in a statement issued by the Assistant Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Power, Mrs. Patricia Deworitshe, was quoted to have stated that “our common destiny is being threatened by lack of access to power.”
The minister, however, expressed the Federal Government’s determination to eradicate darkness through sub-regional collaborations that would ensure an efficient transmission network super-power-grid across the African continent.
This, he said, would bring about cooperation among countries in the region as they would draw on their areas of strengths for the collective good of Africa.
Nebo said these when the Under Secretary-General and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
The minister said the African Energy Leaders Group championed by the UN was a welcome development as it was targeted at the transformation of the region.
He called on the group to give renewable energy a boost as this would make communities that were far flung from the national power grid to get adequate electricity, a development that would promote the establishment of small scale industries in such areas.
Earlier, Yumkella had said his visit to the ministry was to intimate Nigeria on the need for the African Leaders Energy Group.
The initiative, he said, was to fill the vacuum observed in the Millennium Development Goals, which mainly focused on social development without considering the significance of energy as a key factor in the sustainability of the programme.
He said the aim of the group was to provide universal access to energy by 2030, improve energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy mix globally.
Yumkella said Nigeria was a case study for other African countries to emulate because of the success recorded in the privatisation of its power sector, adding that the country would head the West African sub-region of the group.
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