President Muhammadu
Buhari  has been urged to appoint a businessman who understands the relationship between power and national development as the next power Minister.
The Managing Director/Chief  Executive Officer of Ibeh Kalam Limited, a Port Harcourt  based oil and gas company Mr Emmanuel Amaechi who gave this advice in an exclusive  interview yesterday with The Tide in Port Harcourt said the tradition had been to appoint an expert in power or politician as power minister  in Nigeria.
“That exactly had been our undoing.  I tell you that if you  bring in a businessman who is conversant  with the relativity of power to the socio-economic  development of the nation. You will just see the difference,” he said.
The Managing director explained that the power sector remains the most critical driver of the nation’s economy, but regretted that in spite of the abundant resources particularly in the power sector, Nigeria had never  gotten it right.
“The water is everywhere to harness hydro power, the coal  resource is there. The gas, of course, Nigeria is richer in gas than oil as the sixth largest gas abundant nation in the World. Come to climate,  the sun gives enough to harness solar, then what we need is a professional  businessman that understands business operations and the relativity of power and business, for us to move to the next level”, he stated.
Amaechi expressed the view that for any Nigerian President to succeed, he must fix the power challenges such that Nigerians enjoy 24 hours supply.
Power drives the economy more than any other factor  in any developing economy. It would force down production cost and the prices of goods  and services especially those with their operations in the country and it will be good for the government, the industry and for the people”, he maintained.
“Amaechi urged Nigerians not to be deceived by the National Power grid  idea, saying, if centralized power grid could work well in other countries,  there was no way it could work in Nigeria because of the inherent diverse power sources.
“God does not make mistakes where there is  water in abundance, use the hydro, and where there is coal, use  it and also take advantage of the  beautiful climate in terms of solar, and we shall simply be there. I tell you, until Nigeria  gets the power issue right, we can  only be rigmaroling about development,” he stressed.
He urged President Buhari to take the issue of power as most critical in his administration and to also consider such human  materials  as Prof Pat Utomi as Power minister or those with his level of exposure to revive the power sector.
Amaechi condemned the privatization of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) by the immediate  past administration describing it as politically motivated and urged Buhari to review  the exercise as to draw a distinct line between politics and socio-economic interest of the initiative.

Chris Oluoh