President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the sabotage and theft of
gas were undermining the efforts of the government to increase power supply in
the country.
To tackle the problem, the President announced that existing
Military Task-Forces will be reorganized to ensure a successful protection of
the network of gas pipelines.
The President, who said this Tuesday in a question-and-answer
interaction with the Nigerian community in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of
Iran, noted that “although some improvement in power had been recorded in
the recent period,” sabotage of pipeline installations continued to be a
problem.
He told his audience that Nigeria had everything it takes to
generate enough power.
“Power is a running battle because the saboteurs are still
there. We have the potential. We have gas, we have qualified people but we are
contending with a lot of saboteurs who go and blow up installations. When gas
is pumped to Egbin and such other power stations, thieves and saboteurs such as
the militants cut those supplies,” President Buhari said.
He also cited another factor as the reduced role of the government
in the sector due to the privatization of the institutions under the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria, PHCN, in the process of which, he said, the facilities
“have been sold to a number of interest groups.”
He assured that the Military Task-Forces with representation from
the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Police and other security agencies will be reconstituted
to secure the pipelines. “Supplies will become steady; there will be less
sabotage as we secure the pipelines,” he stressed.
President Buhari also updated the Nigerians in Tehran on the
efforts of his administration towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism
in the country, explaining that a lot had been achieved following the
reorganization of the military top command, followed by increased equipment
supply and training.
In a response to a question on the need to improve healthcare
delivery, the President said that efforts had been intensified towards ridding
the country of fake drugs and fake doctors, and also what he called “the
disgraceful aspects” manifested by “baby factories.”
He also enumerated several steps being taken towards the revival
of education from primary school level to university. On the creation of jobs,
he placed the prevailing joblessness in the country at the door-step of the
last administration which he blamed for giving “a devastating blow to the
economy through corruption and incompetence.”
The President said that something urgent will be done about the
bad condition of roads, citing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway as one to be
addressed from next week by the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde
Fashola, who sat next to him at the meeting.
Speaking on the issue of corruption, one of the three issues he
identified as the priorities of his administration, President Buhari said that
the necessity for compliance with due process of the law was responsible for
the delay in the prosecution of the looters of the country’s economy. He noted
however, that the “the day of reckoning is gradually coming.” He also
revealed that a number of past officials had begun the voluntary return of
stolen funds but expressed the view that his government was not satisfied with
tokens.”We want to have everything back – all that they took by force in
16 years,” the President concluded.
