The Buhari Support Group has faulted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP campaign fund launch, admonishing stakeholders in the power sector who contributed towards President Jonathan’s re-election campaign fund raising to put the funds into rehabilitating the sector.
Speaking on the issue, the Director, Media, Publicity and ICT of the Buhari Support Group, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, said the Buhari/Osibajo APC government would bring hope to Nigerians and would ensure that the country reaches or even exceeds the power generation capacity of about 15,000-20,000MW within their first term in office.
Maduekwe said he would have thought that such funds should have been better deployed in giving Nigerians improved power this Christmas season.
“No country has ever moved from developing to being developed by depending on generators as a source of energy to power their economy. It is most frightening when one juxtaposes the United Nations population projection of Nigeria by year 2030 at about 253million and approximately 300 million by 2050.
“This figure about the same as the current population of the United States. As such, the PDP led-government will only lead Nigeria into a demographic disaster with its current failed energy policy.
“Even if the Nigerian public were to credit PDP with an usual ability to suddenly rediscover themselves and pull away from their overt corrupt practices and multiplies the nation’s power generation capacity by a factor of ten, this is still very inadequate for our projected population.
“We shall still be an energy-deficient nation with a population of about 300 million at that time. However, this PDP inept government cannot, will not and has never been associated with such feats.
“In that case, we might just have lower power output in the next 15 years if they remain in power. Is this a worthy gamble for a nation already groaning under severe misrule?
“We have all witnessed from 1999 till date how billons of dollars have been deployed without any significant improvement in the power sector. It is certainly not in PDP’s character to suddenly improve and this situation, if not addressed, will only push the country into the demographic disaster that currently looms,” he said.
Maduekwe pointed out that it was evident that Buhari and Osibajo will leverage on their established record on good governance and zero tolerance for corruption to ensure that the country reaches or even exceeds the power generation capacity of about 15,000-20,000MW within their first term in office.
“It is only such that can guarantee Nigeria generating approximately 80,000MW in the next 16 years if APC were to be in the saddle for the same period we have had a PDP government,” he added.
However, the presidency has said the suggestion by the APC that the money raised at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fundraising dinner be used to fund national power projects portrayed the party as an unserious, unfocused and defective organisation with no reasonable alternative solutions to the nation’s problems.
In statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, the presidency said: “Even though we have always known them to be a party with no clear directions, we never thought they could descend so low in exhibiting clear mischief and folly on a critical national issue.
“We wish to reiterate that this government and the PDP will not engage in a dubious practice of collecting money from private individuals and corporate organisations for a purpose only to divert such money to other purposes.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the power reform programme initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan is not run on a knee-jack finance arrangement. It is a properly envisioned roadmap which is being diligently executed in line with best global practices.
“The power reform programme is being funded through our national budgets and a Foreign Direct Investments running into several billion of dollars.”
Okupe said reputable global player such as the General Electric is investing over a billion dollars into the generation component of the sector.
According to the presidential aide, Nigeria is not a beggar nation and it will not be one under the Jonathan presidency.
Okupe then said that “The suggestion that the N21 billion raised at the party fundraising dinner be used for the power project underscores the perplexing ignorance of General Muhammadu Buhari and his team of party voyagers who have shown that they have absolutely no clue about what it requires to implement a modern revolutionary programme in a capital intensive sector such as Power.
“Finally, the accusation that the PDP governors who donated money at the event have not paid civil servants salaries in their states is largely untrue and mischievous.
“We want to believe that the APC probably has it’s own governor, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, in mind when it made this accusation because it is on record that despite being the major financier of the Buhari campaign, this is the governor who has not paid 13,000 teachers their salaries in the last eight months,” Okupe said.
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