Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has good intentions for Nigeria.
Adesina who spoke at the maiden edition of Breakfast Meeting organised by Christian media organisation, Christian Press Association of Nigeria (CPAN) said, “Good intentions are good and good intentions for the country are being carried out by the President.”
When asked if good intentions are enough to run a country, Adesina said, “President Buhari is a man with good intentions for Nigeria and that is why he is seeking a second term in office so that he can continue to carry out his good intentions.”
Explaining the power situation in Nigeria, the Presidential spokesman confessed that Nigeria is facing myriads of problems and huge resources are needed to fix such.
“The truth about Nigeria is that there are many problems and we need enough resources to combat such problems,” he said. Explaining further, he said, the former government spent about N16bn to fix the power sector but nothing came out of it.
“The former government spent N16bn and nothing came out of it. They rather gave us more darkness,” he said.
The Special Adviser to the President also talked about how much Nigeria generated from oil during the tenure of the immediate past government which he said was not commensurate to the needed infrastructure.
“Between 2012 and 2018 we know what oil price was. It went above $100. At a time it went to $142 and stabilised. It stayed like that for four to five years and what did we find? What happened to all the money? What happened to the billions of dollars?” He queried.
He also suggested that if the money had been used in fixing electricity, Nigerians would have had something to cheer. “If it was only electricity that that government did, Nigerians would say at least they did light. They didn’t do that, they didn’t do road, they didn’t do infrastructure. What went wrong with the money in the coffers?” he asked.
Enlightening participants at the breakfast meeting further on the power sector, Adesina revealed that, “This administration met just about 2,800MW and we now have 7,000MW and that is not even enough.
“Is it not a shame Nigeria has just 7,000MW? The target is that in 2019 we would have a minimum of 10,000MW. If Nigeria has 50,000MW today it is not too much,” he said.
He however revealed the plan of the Buhari-led government on power generation in 2019. “We have to build the power generation and we have to spend money to build it up. It takes time and it takes money and we know we shall get there.”
