Ahmad Zakare, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure has said that Nigerians would remember President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would be remembered for their infrastructural strides.
Speaking on Radio Nigeria weekly program, Have Your Say, he said that the country has a lot to be proud of at 60years.
“Sixty might seem like a long time but in the committee of nations we are rightfully in our toddler years. Most importantly, we have continued to stay together despite many doomsday predictions. There is much left to be done but even more to be thankful for.”
When asked about the state of the nation’s infrastructure he said, “This Buhari/Osinbajo administration will be remembered as the infrastructure revolutionists.
“The track record of President Buhari while he was military head of state and when he was head of the PTF are clear for all to see.
“It would have been alarming if we did not have the Abuja – Kaduna rail line in the period of increased security risks along that stretch of road.
“The Kashim Billa project in Benue state is another classic example of this government taking on long abandoned projects and completing them.”
“The administration has had to be very ingenious in sourcing for funds to execute these projects, one of which was the $600m seed capital that was used to finance the second Niger Bridge, Lagos – Ibadan express way, Abuja – Kano expressway.
“Rail lines such as the Lagos – Ibadan that would soon be commissioned, the already commissioned Warri–Itapke line as well as that of the Kano – Marabi that is intended to take care of the ECOWAS corridor. Finally there is also the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano pipeline amongst various other projects.”
When queried on the power sector, Zakare stated that “in the power sector, upon transition to democracy rule, the country rushed into huge investments in power generation; we built 10 NIPP plants, to the point where we have the line of sight of 15, 000 – 20, 000 MW.
“The fall out of this lopsidedness is that the lack of investment in transmission and distribution means that we still are only able to distribute a third of what we can generate.”
“This dearth in provision of funds for transmission is aptly shown in the fact that only $30m was earmarked for it prior to this administration, a figure that has gone up now to $1.6b through funding from the World Bank, AfDB etc.
“Now with the country’s deal with Siemens of Germany, we are looking to take our transmission and distribution to an equitable quantity to what we can generate.”
Explaining further as relates to the recent hike in electricity tariff, the SSA said that; “One of the major problems is that the people are hardly carried along. It is good to talk to the citizens. What we used to have was a situation where power was priced irrespective of service.
“Imagine paying the same amount for power at my residence in Maitama where I get 20 – 24hrs of power as my people back home in Jigawa who get less than 8 – 12hrs of energy on the average.
“As such it was based on the consultations that NERC had with customers at the start of the year as well as the imploration of the President that we are now shifting to a serviced based tariff plan. Where everyone is metered and what you get is what you pay.”
“It should be noted that majority of those making all the noise regarding the hike are not paying attention to the facts, as currently more than 70% of Nigerians aren’t even on the National grid and those are the people that the government is looking to provide solar power for via Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s ESP plus those who are currently getting less than 12hrs of energy that would not witness any increase in their tariffs.”
