Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has reacted to the strike by the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, which threw Nigeria into darkness.
The PDP presidential aspirant promised to transform the power sector if elected President in the 2023 general election.
Recall that the electricity workers on Wednesday went on a strike over welfare issues which resulted in a total blackout.
The union, however, suspended the strike after an emergency meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.
Reacting to the development, Atiku in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday debunked alleged interest in any generator company.
He stated, “In this regard, my approach is to first remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and give states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves. An industrial dispute with the FG in Abuja should not affect an industry in Lagos or a factory in Aba or in Kano or even an average Nigerian who just wants to get home, watch the news and sleep under a ceiling fan.
See Also: Electricity Workers Suspend Strike
“Secondly, my policy shall aim at achieving greater coordination of investments in the entire electricity value chain. Investments in additional generation capacity are futile without consideration for the complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to wheel the additional energy.
“Any investment in additional generation capacity would be competitively procured considering a viable mix of renewable (hydro, solar, wind and biofuels) and non-renewable (coal, gas) options for energy security”.
The former Vice President said before procuring additional generation, both transmission and distribution capacities would be enhanced with government and private sector support for investments.
He added, “In this regard, we shall incentivize private investors to invest in the development of multiple green-field mini-grid transmission systems to be looped into the super-grip in the medium to long term while allowing the FG focus on policy, regulation, and standardization.”
Source: Dailypost