The federal government in conjunction with Niger Delta Power Holding Company, afirm in charge of National Independent Power Project yesterday approved a budget of N19 billion as compensation on transmission for farmlands and structures that would be destroyed.
Federal and State Governments are also jointly going to be contributing N4.5 billion to address the challenges.
Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam who disclosed this to State House Correspondents decried the power supply situation in the country, stressing that it was so bad that even government houses across the country operate mostly on generating plants.
Suswam who spoke alongside his Ekiti state counterpart, Kayode Fayemi, minister of power, Bath Nnaji and Managing Director of the Niger Delta
Power Holding Company, James Olotu, after a meeting with the president,said that government was in a haste to deliver power to Nigerians.
Shortly after the meeting with Jonathan,the Board of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP)went into a ten-hour meeting at the Presidential Villa.
“We the governors are concerned and worried about poor power supply”,Suswam said, noting that the government of Jonathan was seriously and pragmatically addressing the poor power supply situation in the country.
“Even we still operate on generators in our government Houses. We know that if we can have enough power, we will be able to generate jobs for youths because there would be cottage industries and other employment generating ventures”, he added.
Suswam said further that government’s zeal in ensuring adequate power to the citizens was being accelerated by the joint efforts of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Ministers of Power, Petroleum and Finance with Vice President Namadi Sambo at the helm.
At the end of the day, the governor said, power would largely be operated like GSM in which the private sector participants would take charge.
Bath Nnaji corroborated Suswam’s position when he said the government was targeting 5,000 additional megawatts to the current status at the end of the year.
“We are being realistic. We don’t want to paint rosy picture to impress Nigerians”, he said.
Earlier, President Jonathan said that his administration was focused and fully committed to the attainment of uninterrupted power supply in the country before the end of its tenure in 2015.