Check this out. # NEXTIER POWER LISTS "TOUGH CHOICE" DECISIONS ASPIRANTS MUST MAKE TO REVIVE AILING ECONOMY - BusinessDay
NEXTIER Power, a public sector advisory body, has called on political aspirants in Nigeria to make tough economic choices in Nigeria’s key sectors, mostly in the oil and gas and the power sectors to address concerns of the weak impact of government’s economic decisions on the economy.
NEXIER Power gave the directive at the 2018 Political Party Workshop for political parties in Nigeria held on Wednesday in Abuja.
Patrick Okigbo, the founder and the principal partner of NEXIER Power, told BusinessDay at the workshop that specific tough choices that had to re-direct the economy had to be made, while insisting that politicians had to be knowledgeable about the choices to make, whether popular or unpopular, in order to keep the nation moving.
Speaking on the specific choices, he said, “We are subsiding power in Nigeria by choice. Everyone in government knows. What we are paying for power today is far less what it costs to produce the power. The thinking is that we can find a way to scrub that subsidy, so that the government can in the first few years when power increases, gradually you can wipe out that subsidy and people would pay the cost reflective tariff.”
Citing example with France, he said, “If you look at what is happening in France today, Macron is trying to make that tough choices and they are not popular choices. The same thing happen in Nigeria when Jonathan tried to remove the fuel subsidy in 2012-the right economic decision to make, but the politics of it, he got it wrong. Not even the sensitisation of Nigerians was done that this was done, hence he did not win the support of Nigerians before pulling the trigger.”
On the reason for the workshop, he said, “We think that going into the 2019 elections, it is important for the political parties to understand and know what the fundamental issues are, why proffering on the solutions. Some of these challenges are even more significant more than they think.”
On the tough choices in the Oil and Gas sector, he called for the quick assent of the Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill by the President to address concerns of lost of huge investments to neighbouring countries discovering the oil and Gas in Africa.
According to Okigbo, “We have been having fundamental challenges in the Oil and Gas sector, which we have been trying to solve through the Petroleum Industry Bill. Key efforts have been made to ensure that both chambers of the National Assembly put up a Petroleum Industry Governance Bill which has been presented to the President. He declined to assent, and this should not be for we are loosing investments.”
Clarifying further, he said, “If you look at the marginal fields that was licensed few years ago, only few of them about 30% had been in operation. What does this mean, it means that despite the fact that we had a goal of 4million barrels per day, we are only to do about 2.5 million barrels on a good day.This is why the Presidential assent to the bill is key to address the concern.”
by HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA
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