“I want to see more people get access to electricity”

monjola sotubo

June 15, 2016 1:47 PM

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has said that he wants to see sustainable, reliable electricity in Nigeria before he dies.

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola.

Fashola also said that Nigeria is a country of promise despite its many challenges.

“I’m a thinking person and I’m always looking for solutions to solutions. When I’ve found one solution, I’m not always convinced that it’s the best solution, so even when I’m implementing it, I’m looking for ways to make it better,” he said on Monday, June 13, 2016, during an interview with Channels Television.

“Generally, the promise of this country keeps me awake. I know that it is a country of so much promise; I want to see some of those promises before I die. I want to see sustainable, reliable electricity; I want to see more people get access to electricity.

“I want to see more people pay mortgages for their own homes. I want to see roads in this country smoother… to be more efficient so that people have more pleasant journey time. Nigeria is a very beautiful place.

“We’ve been trying to generate sustainable energy for 66 years and I’ve spent 6.5, 7 months. I have learnt a lot to convince me that the problems can be solved. I haven’t visited all the power plants but I intend to. I intend to visit all the power facilities so that I understand what I’m expected to manage. If I wanted to do that in a whole month, it wouldn’t be enough.

“One whole year perhaps wouldn’t be enough. But every power plant I go to, every transmission facility I see, every substation that I visit… I visited a nuclear manufacturing plant privately set up a few weeks ago, everything that I saw convinced me that it can be done. The more I see, the more I believe we can solve it,” he added.

Fashola had earlier said that there’s not enough power in the country to meet the needs of all Nigerians.

monjola sotubo