Power Crisis: BPE Seeks Stakeholders’ Summit To End Blame Game

Frightened by scope the blame game in power sector is climbing, the management of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), has advocated for the convening of holistic stakeholders’ conference to allow for all-inclusive deliberations in order to end sector’s quagmire.
The Director-General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, who suggested the idea, while speaking at the just concluded donors and stakeholders forum in Abuja, said any approach that tends to escalate tension and install a blame game would not help the sector.
However, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Gur Mohammed, has expressed reservations that the electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) might shun the meeting, noting they are used to boycotting such forum.
Okoh, regretted the lack of coordination in the sector, especially between the transmission and the distribution companies.
According to him, “I will like to say that we are facing a very important and difficult challenge in ensuring that we are creating a very viable power sector in the country. And, in that quest, it is very important that every participant and all the actors are coordinated and harmonized in the approach to solve the problem.
“Clearly, the privatization of the power sector is perhaps the biggest single privatization exercise which happened on this planet.
“It is, therefore, conceivable that there will be certain gaps in the implementation of this very comprehensive power program and I think the approach and the attitude that will be helpful is the one that recognizes the gaps that have opened up in the implementation process.