Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has finally embraced a power sector reform plan he first proposed 21 years ago.
Atiku made the assertion in a statement issued on Sunday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.
According to the former vice president, the current administration’s approach to addressing Nigeria’s persistent electricity challenges reflects the policy direction he championed more than two decades ago.
According to him, the recent admission by the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, that Nigeria can no longer depend solely on large, centralised power plants amounts to a belated endorsement of the decentralised electricity generation model he championed more than 20 years ago.
“It should not take a government three years in office to discover what was obvious more than two decades ago.
“A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more. Unfortunately, this administration has done the exact opposite—raising tariffs first and only now beginning to think about the reforms required to justify those increases.”
Atiku said that during his tenure as Vice President of Nigeria, he consistently urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to decentralise electricity generation by harnessing Nigeria’s diverse energy resources, including hydroelectric dams, solar, gas, and other viable sources.
“This has been my position for over two decades,” he stated.
