By Clara Nwachukwu

The Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, NIEEE, has called on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to ensure that only a professional is appointed to man the Ministry of Power.

The institute argued that this is the only way to make progress and achieve national vision of becoming one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020.

It also noted that the politicisation of power over the decades had plunged it into the current quagmire, such that per capita electricity consumption is at its lowest of 22.74 watts compared with South Africa’s 890watts.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos on the need to appoint a technical person for the power ministry, the General Secretary, NIEEE, Mr Hafeez Ajibade, said, “We do not support the choice of bundling the office of the Minister of Power with that of Mr. President. At this critical period of our power system, the tasks before the minister are so challenging that they cannot be merged with the office of the president or vice president.”

He insisted that the sector needed someone who understands the technicalities involved in order to make a rapid impact, adding that if a non professional was appointed, “it will take time for him or her to learn the ropes. Experience in Nigeria has shown that ministers of power do not last longer than two or three years in office and very little would have been achieved because of the learning period.”

Accordingly Ajibade said, “The NIEEE hereby call for the appointment of a seasoned electrical engineer who has an in-depth understanding of the entire sector from generation to distribution, even to maintenance, as the Minister for Power.”

He further argued that Nigeria required a change of approach in handling power issues in view of the critical state of emergency the sector was in, adding that little or no improvement had been achieved because the same approach had been adopted over the years.

To underscore the critical nature of the sector, he said that Nigeria required to generate about 75,000 mega watts if it is to achieve its Vision 2020 targets.

“So if we want full self sufficiency in power, we must generate 75,000Mw and this requires a lot of work and not politics. More so, as the sector has remained under-funded for so long.”