President Muhammadu Buhari has attributed the inability of the Federal Government to provide stable power supply to sabotage and theft of gas by unscrupulous Nigerians.
To address the situation, the President has resolved to reorganise the existing Military Task Forces to protect gas pipelines across the country.
During a question-and-answer interactive session with the Nigerian community in Tehran, Iran on Tuesday, Buhari said that “although some improvements in power supply had been recorded in the recent period, sabotage of pipeline installations continued to be a major hindrance”.
According to him, Nigeria has everything it takes to generate enough power, adding that “power is a running battle because the saboteurs are still there. We have the potential. We have the 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.”
He also cited another factor as the reduced role of the government in the sector due to the privatisation 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 reorganisation of the military’s 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 doorstep 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.
Buhari also disclosed that some treasury looters, who he didn’t name in Jonathan’s administration, have started returning stolen funds to the government.
The President explained that the prosecution of suspected corrupt persons would have been on by now but for the need to thoroughly investigate them and gather adequate evidences for their trial.
He said it was easy for him during his tenure as a military Head of State in1985 to quickly jail such persons while they prove their innocence, whereas current realities of the rule of law and due process have slowed him down in prosecuting corrupt persons this time around.
The Nigerian Charge D’Affairs in Iran, Dr. Ali Magashi, told the President that Nigerians in the country were law abiding, although a few are in prison for drug offences.
