President Goodluck Jonathan has said Nigerians that the problem of power supply in the country is likely to continue long after 2011.

He spoke while responding to a question at a Town Hall Meeting held in the Governor’s Lodge in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State while on a two-day working visit.
Asked to give a definite time and date when Nigerians would start receiving regular  power supply,  the President said, even if he were a native doctor, he would not attempt to give a specific date as requested.

His words: “It is not proper to make that promise again, when Nigeria will have a steady power supply. Even if I am a native doctor, I cannot venture into that. We cannot even say next year. If we will have a target, it will not give us what we want.

We can only have steady power supply when we achieve 40,000 mega watts. “We are taking it very seriously everyday to review the situation. By God’s grace, we will continue to progress and cannot get worse than what we have now.

We will continue to improve until we get a stable power supply for our domestic and industrial use.”

Citing his experience as governor in Bayelsa State, he said he found that when one comes up with 10,000 megawatts for instance, more people will immediately go ahead and apply for power lines and soon after that, power would become inadequate.

He argued that there was always that problem of trying to meet the demands for power and he then said power problems in the country cannot be over by this time next year.

He however assured that government was taking the issue of power very seriously, “we meet every week to look into the matter and we will continue to tackle the problem until we get steady power supply,”he added.

On the issue of kidnapping in the country, the president said it was very critical and that it has reached an embarrassing level.

He said government was employing modern technology to track kidnappers.

He assured that government was trying to go to the National Assembly to try and find ways to review the laws on kidnapping with a view to making it more severe on those who engage in it.

He said whenever a single person was kidnapped in this country, even if it is 2am at night he is always informed.

According to him, “we are taking the matter very seriously and we will not fail to deal with the perpetrators. You even find that some communities in the country have turned it into a business and people who even have chains of degrees have been found to be aiding abetting this criminal activity.

You also find that there are highly placed individuals who are involved in it because sometimes when somebody is kidnapped you find these highly placed individuals going  to negotiate the ransom.” he said.

Continuing, he said, “The issue of kidnapping has become very critical. We have allowed it to deteriorate to a very embarrassing state. Some highly placed people are involved in it. We are not sleeping; we are finding ways to track down kidnappers and we are trying to pursue the use of ICT equipment to track them down.”

On the issue of refineries, the president said, “it is not in the place of government to be directly involved but to encourage the private sector to invest in it.”

Continuing, he said, “what is actually limiting the establishment of these refineries is the pricing of the petroleum products which government wants to sort out. If government will be involved, it will still be as a kind of private public partnership but not directly like having the NNPC building refineries.”

The President also argued that one of the greatest problems in the country is lack of planning.

His words: “We do our budget without proper planning. We struggle with little resources to do so many things and this one of our greatest problems that hinder project execution.

I will plead with members of the National Assembly that if they are interested in any project, they should approach the ministry or department of government that will be in charge of that project so that they can work together in planning the project.”