President Goodluck Jonathan has reiterated the commitment of his administration to undertake a revamping of the country’s power sector, adding that no responsible government can afford to play politics with power because it is at the heart of national development.

Speaking through the Special Adviser to the President on power and Chairman Presidential Task Force on Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, at the Business Environment roundtable, tagged “Private Sector Perspective on Power Sector Reforms” organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Jonathan said his government has since inception been guided by sincerity of purpose as far as provision of electricity is concerned and wants to do what is appropriate in the power sector and not what is politically correct, whether in an election year or not.

“By the time we complete the ongoing power sector reform process, the electricity supply challenge which has in a profound way retarded our progress will be a thing of the past. The power challenge is not rocket science, we are really on the way to solving it once and for all” he declared.

Jonathan disclosed that about $100billion will be needed within the next decade to escalate electricity generation from the present less than 4,000MW to 40,000MW by 2020.

“Our situation is made more challenging by the fact that both our transmission and distribution networks are not what they should be, nor were robust arrangements made over the decades for gas feedstock for our thermal plants” he said.

He said the private sector has a big part to play in government’s determined effort to bridge the power supply gap in Nigeria and that the road map for the power sector reform makes the private sector the main driver of the generation and distribution subsectors but also the manager of the transmission network, even though it will remain government owned.

“This shows how critical the private sector is to the success of the ongoing power sector reform. My administration regards the private sector as a partner in national development. The concept of Public Private Partnership, especially in infrastructure development, is fully in practice in the power sector” he stated.

The President of LCCI, Otunba Femi Deru said the chamber’s concern is that the power situation is an emergency situation and therefore urgent steps need to be taken to bring immediate relief to operators in the economy and citizens as a whole.

“This is without prejudice to the roadmap and other reform initiatives. Government needs to play a lead role by committing a much higher percentage of its resources to power sector. The problem of corruption and mismanagement in the system also needs to be urgently addressed.” he said.

He said in a developing economy, the government has a fundamental responsibility to provide infrastructures and security to stimulate private investment and guarantee real economic growth, adding that, the success or failure of a government should be measured by their performances in these areas.