Drama Over Blackout At Nigerian National Assembly As Power Minister Defends N344Billion 2024 Budget

A mild drama played out at the National Assembly on Tuesday as a blackout occurred while Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, was presenting the ministry's 2024 N344 billion budget.

Members of the House of Representatives and senators had gathered during a joint committee session to hear from the minister why the government should allocate a total sum of N344 billion for the ministry and its agencies but while the minister was speaking in defence of the budget, there was a blackout.

LEADERSHIP reports that the power outage prompted the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Eyinnaya Abaribe, to say that what the minister has been saying is implicative.

The power outage also prompted Senator Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi, to ask the minister of power when Nigeria was going to have a stable power supply, while some other lawmakers who were at the committee sitting said Nigeria still had a long way to go regarding power generation and distribution.

The report said the minister had to pause because of the disruption at around 12:25 pm.

After the restoration of power at the Senate hearing room 221, Adelabu said the ministry would start operation at the Zungeru power plant this month.

Adelabu was quoted as saying, “We hope 300 megawatts will be generated,” adding that the N344 billion for the 2024 budget is for all the agencies under the power ministry.

He further said that “Nigeria must be taken out of energy poverty,” and that 14,000 megawatts of electricity generation were not acceptable.

According to the minister, even with the generation of 14,000 megawatts, the capacity of transmission was just 8,000 due to poor infrastructure for distribution.

He also disclosed that out of the megawatts of power generated, about 40 percent was lost during transportation as a result of weak infrastructure.

“When you transport power, you lose a percentage. The average is five percent but in Nigeria, we lose up to 40 percent of the power we generated because of poor infrastructures,” he said.

Minister Adelabu, while explaining why they did not capture the Mambilla power project in the 2024 budget, said it was under international arbitration, adding that they could not touch it.

“The same reason why it was not captured in the old budget is the same reason it was not added in the 2024 budget,” he said.

Adelabu said that for Nigeria to have a stable power supply, it must invest so much in infrastructure.

He said, “We need to invest so much in power transport infrastructure. When this power gets to the infrastructure, much of it gets lost because the majority of our houses are not metered.”

The minister added that when it comes to power distribution, the states must be involved and that the Discos must be monitored by the host community, adding that the budget will address the lingering issues.