Mainstream newspapers and the social media are currently awash with the reports of how President Muhammadu Buhari and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo have been exchanging hot words over how some $16 billion was invested in the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
Initially, when President Buhari made the allegation when he received some of his supporters at the State House during the week, he did not mention any name but being a true and bold Nigerian, Obasanjo responded promptly one of his aides, Kehinde Akinyemi.
Akinyemi said “For the records, Chief Obasanjo has addressed the issues of the power sector and the allegations against him on many occasions and platforms, including in his widely publicised book, My Watch, in which he exhaustively stated the facts and reproduced various reports by both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which conducted a clinical investigation into the allegations against Chief Obasanjo, and the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Review of the Recommendations in the Report of the Committee on Power on the Investigation into how the Huge Sums Of Money was Spent on Power Generation, Transmission And Distribution between June 1999 and May 2007 without Commensurate Result.
“We recommend that the President and his co-travelers should read Chapters 41, 42, 43 and 47 of My Watch for Chief Obasanjo’s insights and perspectives on the power sector and indeed what transpired when the allegation of $16 billion on power projects was previously made.”
With this kind of submission coming from Obasanjo, it is advisable for President Buhari to ignore all the technicalities being introduced by the former President and keep the focus – which is the provision of power for the teeming masses in Nigeria.
Mr Babatunde Raji Fasola, the man in charge of the Ministry of Power needs to be encouraged and empowered to achieve more. Most Nigerians will readily agree that power generation has increased. The major problem is distribution due to archaic and outdated distribution channels.
Mr President should always keep it at the back of his mind that exchange of words is not what Nigerians bargained for when they massively voted for him in 2015. Delivery of electioneering campaign promises is what they simply want, and time is fast running out!
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
