The Senate on Wednesday confirmed the
nominations of Prof. Chinedu Nebo and Kabiru Taminu Turaki as ministers
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after subjecting them to a screening
session of questions and answers.
Both nominees in their separate sessions
on the floor of the Senate, spoke on issues bordering on security,
power, education and politics.
Nebo from Enugu State, who was former
Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, while speaking on
the challenges in the power sector, said “uninterrupted power supply is
not a mirage.”
He noted that with the unbundling of the
Power Holding Company, there were a lot of opportunities for
improvements in the power sector.
Nebo said, “Looking at what Nigeria is
trying to do, we are planning to generate 40,000 megawatts by 2020, but
when you look at the capacity of Nigeria to absorb electricity, that
will not be enough.”
He said there was the need for more IPPs
to be involved, arguing that with increased opportunities, even those
who lost out in the bidding process of the sale of PHCN, could start
their own infrastructure in participating in power generation,
transmission and distribution.
On dealing with alleged ‘mafia’ group in
the power sector, Nebo noted that God would empower him to chase out
the mafia, which he termed “demons and witches.”
He said, “Some highly placed Nigerians believe that when there is outage, it is caused by witches and demons.
“If the President deploys me in the
power sector, I believe that given my performance at the University of
Nigeria Nsukka, where I drove out the witches and demons, God will also
give me the power to drive out the demons in the power sector.”
He lamented that while South Africa
generates 40,000 megawatts for its 40million population, Nigeria is
still battling with 4,000 megawatts for about 170 million of her people.
Turaki on his part, called for the
training of the military deployed for assignments in terrorists prone
areas of the country to enable them to relate well with civil
authorities.
He said the problem of insecurity could
be tackled through a close collaboration between the agencies, while
shunning inter agency rivalry.
He expressed support for the deployment
of troops to Mali, saying that the funding and training for insurgents
in the country are located in Mali.
“Nigeria should attack the base of the
terrorists in Mali, because only Niger stands between Nigeria and Mali.
If we don’t join other nations to fight the terrorists in Mali, they can
find their way into Niger and then into Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking on the decay in the Police
Force, Turaki noted that “the problems facing the Nigerian Police are so
legendary. The decay had gone on for so long a time. It is easy to
destroy, but rebuilding will take some more time.”
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