The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has disclosed that despite having competent engineers in Nigeria, the country generated 2,000 megawatts of electricity in 40 years.
Chief Adelabu disclosed this during the recent visit of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), led by its President, Engr. Margaret Oguntala to the Ministry of Power in Abuja.
He underscored the importance of stronger working relationship between the body and the ministry in addressing the mountainous challenges in the power sector.
“I want to challenge the body to let your activities impact on the efficiency of the critical infrastructure of the ministry. In this, you must be seen to have lived up to your responsibility.
“We have so many engineers in Nigeria, yet our power infrastructure is still like this. NSE was established in 1958, that is about 67 years ago and yet we are still having grid collapse, so what are our engineers doing? Should it be like this? The answer is definitely, no.
“In 1984, the country generated 2,000mw of electrify and this was not increased to 4000mw untill about 40 years later around 2022 or so.
“We are about two years now, but we have been able to increase it to 6000 megawatts and this can be attributed to the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the realisation of the importance of the sector as a major factor to galvanise the economy”, the Minister said.
He advised the NSE to focus on the challenges besetting infrastructural development, saying that such efforts to develop the country is the way to show patriotism and nationalism.
“It is a slight on us if we cannot address these challenges, so I’m calling on your society to let us work together in addressing Nigeria’s problems, using your expertise. Theministry, does not give jobs out without such a company being a member of your society. We are not like any other ministry or government agency, the power sector is unique. So on our part, we are fulfilling our obligations to you but you have not reciprocated this to us.
Adelabu also emphasized the importance of manpowerdevelopment, training and enjoined the NSE to take it seriously.
“I also want the NSE to take the issue of training very seriously. The profession needs constant training and retraining. We have a very vibrant training institute, the National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN) that you can partner with in this aspect of training. It is unfortunate that the issue of training has been relegated to the background. The last crop of our engineers that were trained were those from the old National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). We must go back to that era of rigorous training of our engineers”.
Also on manpower development and local capacity building, the Minister called for collaboration with the Federal Government.
“We must be able to produce all the materials we need in our power sector locally. This will promote employment, patronage for our local industries and companies and help us to conserve our foreign exchange. You must also provide mentorship for the young ones coming behind you so that they can look up to you in the profession. In our younger days as accountants, we were always looking up and aspiring to be like the doyen of accountancy in the country like Chief Akintola Williams, the Dafinones. So, you have a responsibility to provide that leadership to keep those coming behind you focused”, he said.
In her remarks, the NSE president promised that the body would take up the challenges by the Minister and assured of NSE’s commitment to contributing technical expertise toward improving Nigeria’s power sector, fostering innovation, and enhancing capacity development within the industry.
