By Chioma Obinna

DELEGATES at  the National Conference have been urged to critically examine the remote and immediate causes of  the epileptic power supply in the country with a view to finding lasting solution  to them.

Making this call in Lagos, a non governmental organisation that seeks steady power supply in Nigeria, Good Governance Initiative, GGI, stressed the need to make power sector a priority at the conference as 70 percent  of the myriads of problem facing the country was hinged on power failure.

In a statement signed by GGI, President, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu, the group, noted that the key driver of the  economy  anywhere in the world remains steady power supply.
Mbisiogu further stressed that the country’s power sector should not be treated with kids glove.

Mbisiogu who is also the Managing Director, Blue Diamond Logistics China, lamented the various challenges Nigerians are facing in their own land  as a result of inadequate power supply, saying that the  Conference would remain a mirage if the power sector challenge was not accorded a priority and tackled effectively.

His words; “The importance of power in the life of a nation cannot be overstressed as it holds the key to economic prosperity of any nation. It is responsible for  the high unemployment that the country is facing.

“The absence of constant electricity is seriously inhibiting the ability of Nigeria to attract foreign industries that heavily depend on electric energy to get their products out. It is ironic that would-be industrialists now take their businesses to more electrically stable countries like Ghana,” he added.

“The quality of education in Nigeria is indirectly being affected by absence of constant electricity in schools. In the world of today, the internet has become an integral part of education and access to the internet is dependent on electricity”, he said.

Mbisiogu, recalled that a recent statistics established Nigeria as the largest importer of generator in the world as this has aggravated the spending patterns of Nigerian homes and business because average Nigerian home expends between N60,000 to N100,000 per month in a country where per capital income is less than a dollar per day.