Tambuwal: It's a shame Nigeria still struggles to generate 3000 MW of electricity

For the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, it is nothing less than a shame that Nigeria still struggles to produce 3000 megawatts of electricity despite huge amount of resources already sunk in the power sector.

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The speaker, who of late has become an avid critic of President Goodluck administration, also said that both the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office were responsible for poor implementation of capital budget, thereby hindering infrastructure development in the country.

Tambuwal spoke while receiving management and board members of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), led by its chairman, Mr Hamman  Tukur.

He told the visitors that 'we are not your problem in terms of funding, your main problem principally is the budget office and Ministry of Finance.'

He said that the House had been having running battles with both the executive arm of government over budget implementation.

'That is the area where we have been having friction with the executive arm of government. By the time the president laid the budget, it is completely different from what the Ministries, Departments and Agencies submits,' he said.

The speaker, who also spoke on the issue of crude oil benchmark controversy with Senate holding on to $76.5 as crude oil benchmark, said that 'we are still dragging with the executive arm of government on the issue of oil benchmark, why? Because, we said we need more money to fund infrastructure development. Somebody somewhere is saying that we should be saving money, saving money on an empty stomach.

How do you save money when you are hungry.
'We are hungry for health care, road infrastructure, rail lines, power and education and somebody somewhere is saying we should save money for what and for who? We actually need to look at the advice and whose interest are they saving? Is it our own interest or somebody else interest?' the speaker stated.

To this end, he said that 'we are the true representatives of the people. We have the mandate of the people to act and speak on behalf of our people. They are appointees and that is the very big difference from them.'

Earlier, Mr Tukur told the speaker that the visit was to solicit the House support in its areas of operation of providing reliable, stable and affordable electricity to the populace.