Senate President Bukola Saraki, said this today in his speech at the 2-day Stakeholders Interactive Dialogue/Workshop on the Nigerian Power Sector for the National Assembly in Abuja.
“Let me reiterate the urgency of this gathering in human terms. Wherever you go in the country nothing represents the failure of government and leadership in the mind of Nigerian like the epileptic power situation in the country.
Fixing it is at the highest priority list of our people. In other words, our people are demanding that we do all that is in our power to reverse this long and unenviable power sector blight. We must get it right. The first step is this forum”he said.
Saraki went further to state that in the course of reforming the power sector, some people might lose their jobs as well as investments
“We cannot shy away from the fact that inexcusable mistakes have been made in the past that brought us to this point and we must be willing to face up to them and clearly delineate them in order to ensure that we do not return to the mistakes of the past. Clearly some of these where innocent mistakes, others were rather the product of selfish interests, some fraudulent, some borne out of ignorance and others glaring lack of capacity apparent from day one.
All of these combined has brought us to the mess we now have to face up to. To get out however, sacrifice has to be made and borne by all. We must agree to put Nigeria first and our contributions to this must be genuine. Yes, some will lose money, jobs may be lost, investment gestation may extend but government must as well be sincerely committed to providing the right environment and fulfill its part of the deal without equivocation. Unless all players speak frankly, open-mindedly and honestly we will not get the right solutions. I am going to lead the way in being blunt and specific in my contribution starting with these remarks and hopefully that will set the tune for not-so-politically-correct deliberations here”.