Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The House of Representatives, yesterday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari, to declare a state of emergency in the power sector.

The House also mandated its Committee on Power to organise a public hearing on the state of electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the country. It said the public hearing would enable the parliament critically evaluate the problems in the power sector  and come up with ideas on how  to expand the  energy sources beyond hydro and gas plants to include coal, solar and other renewable sources of energy.

The House also mandated its committee on power to carry out oversight visits to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and other relevant agencies under the Ministry of Power,  to ensure compliance with existing Acts in the sector.

These resolutions followed the adoption of a motion by Nnolim Nnaji on “urgent need to declare state of emergency on the power sector.”

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Nnaji, in his motion,  decried the epileptic power situation in the country, saying there was urgent need for improved power supply to consumers.

“Only a limited number of Nigeria’s population is connected to the energy grid, whilst power supply difficulties are experienced around the country. At best, average daily power supply is estimated at 4 hours, although several days can go by without any power at all. We are having a serious decline in power generation, thus the idea of our nation generating 2,000 to 3,000 MW or less is highly unacceptable.

“Fixing the energy crises in Nigeria is of paramount importance, as it will help to reduce crime rate, create employments, reduce health hazards, reduce urban migration, reduce high production costs in our industries, reduce post-harvest losses in agriculture via storage facilities, increase the generation and distribution of water supply, boost small and medium scale entrepreneurs, eradicate poverty, attract foreign investors and generally revitalise the economy and developmental agenda.

“We should take advantage of the peculiar endowments of nature to our Nigerian environment, and also harness the various alternative and viable sources of energy in Nigeria like solar, coal power plant, wind turbine, gas turbine, hydro-electric dam, including mini-grid and renewable energy options available in different regions to enhance our current and pitiable state of electricity supply,” Nnaji said.