……….as National Grid Collapsed the 5th time this Year
A civil rights advocacy group known as Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for a comprehensive forensic financial audit of the power sector from 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office.
The group is of the opinion that all the top officials who have served under the President Buhari-led administration should be called to render accounts of their service.
In a statement signed by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said it is disturbing seeing how the national power grid is collapsing intermittently under the watch of President Buhari, even after humongous investments.
“It is worrisome that despite the huge spending on the power sector, the situation under Buhari hasn’t improved an inch. Asides from the external borrowings, over one trillion has entered the electricity sector through budgetary provisions. Yet, whilst the politicians feed fat on this humongous cash, the national grid keeps intermittently collapsing and nobody is held to account.
“HURIWA demands a comprehensive forensic financial audit of the power sector since President Muhammadu Buhari came on board and calls for the arrest of all the top figures that have served in the sector including ministers if they so failed to render accounts.
“Nigerians cannot continue living in perpetual darkness and paying dearly for it through high tariffs. Enough is enough,” part of the statement read.
According to the group, despite trillions of dollars thought to have been borrowed by the Buhari government to improve the megawatts produced by about 19 power generating plants in Nigeria, the national grid has continued to wobble, causing constant power outages that throw businesses, homes and the entire country into blackout.
Recall that in January 2020, Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, after a National Economic Council meeting in Abuja, announced that President Buhari-led government had supported Nigeria’s “broken” electricity sector with N1.7trillion since 2017.
Similarly, in June 2021, the World Bank reported that President Buhari administration had borrowed a total of N1.3trillion since 2017 to keep the power generation companies active.
The report added that it would cost the Nigerian government an additional N3.08trillion through 2023, if current performance levels and low tariffs persist.
Also, in September 2021, a statement by Bloomberg quoted President Buhari as saying that Nigeria needed over $400billion to fund its critical energy needs.
The call by HURIWA was resonated by the collapse of the national power grid on Friday April 8, 2022, throwing many Nigerian cities and economic powerhouses including Abuja, Lagos, Jos, Kaduna into darkness. The Friday incident has made it about the fifth the grid has collapsed this year (2022).
HURIWA further stated that President Buhari-led government has incurred many more debts under the pretext of attempting to stabilize Nigeria’s power sector meanwhile the country barely generates and distributes 5,000 megawatts daily, leaving businesses and homes to grapple with increasing electricity tariffs, fuel scarcity and fuel price hike.
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