The Managing Director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Olufunke Osibodu, has advised Nigerians against expecting any improvement in the power sector in the next five years.
The Benin Disco Boss, who spoke at the 11th Annual Founder’s Day event of the American University of Nigeria in Yola, Saturday, said at least N250 billion is required annually to fix the country’s electricity sector.
“And we Nigerians need to understand that we cannot do it overnight, and in addition we have to pay for it,” Mrs. Osibodu, said while delivering the keynote speech titled ‘Beyond Oil: Sustainable Development for All Nigerians.
“We need to be ready as citizens also, to accept and live with the pain that we have to go through, and allow time as our friends.
“As Nigerians, often we are the ones that deceive our politicians. The politicians believe that the only way to go is to promise everything immediately possible. Promise that everything is possible today so that they can get elected. But when you see that it is not, so we want to give them time and use time as our friends.
“It is the same story for the power industry. When I tell my friends, that forget any improvement for the next five years, they are scared, but that is the truth. We need minimum of five years to invest before we see results.
“But very often, because Nigerians are impatient, we start pushing our governments and they start reversing good things they have done in various ways. So we need to be more patient.”
Apart of challenges of generation, Nigeria also has problems of transmission and distribution of the generated electricity. According to Mrs. Osibodu, Nigeria is currently producing two percent of the total electricity it requires.
