Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that government's dream to actualise 6,000 megawatts of electricity had not gone down the drain. He challenged relevant institutions to wake up and ensure the dream was met.
To this end, Dr. Jonathan said government had set a daily target of one billion cubic feet of gas supply for the ministry of petroleum resources, so that complaints of gas shortage should not keep cropping up.
A reliable top presidency source, who confided in reporters said, the acting president had tasked the ministry to ensure that the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Shell, Chevron and other major gas producers in the country are compelled to provide the required quantity of dry gas.
This, the source said, is to meet the target of 6,000 megawatts of electricity for the country.
According to the source, "The Acting President is very unhappy with the ministry for its failure to generate gas to power the government's 6,000 megawatts of electricity. He has directed that all the gas producers in the country must provide the one billion daily gas target to the power plants," the source said.
Jonathan was visibly angry during last week's meeting of the Presidential Steering Council on National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), when he directed the minister of petroleum resources, Dr. Rilwan Lukman, to summon all the gas producers in the country to a meeting to iron out the grey areas in the one billion gas daily supply arrangement.
His approval of the appointment of an executive director to co-ordinate the operations of the Nigeria Independent Power Project, NIPP, is also, according to the source, another indication that he was dissatisfied with the progress so far made in the power sector.
"I think the time has come for the government to do what is right. Any gas producer who tells Nigerians that it is shutting its plant because it wants to evacuate condensates or maintain pipelines without recourse to due process, should be sanctioned. There should be penalties for this kind of sabotage. We must stop this nonsense perpetrated by these companies. It is either they do business here or they don't," the source added.
Our correspondent gathered that due to the nonchalant attitude of the ministry and other stakeholders, the country only gets about 250 million gas supply, leaving a shortfall of 750 million.
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