President Good-luck Jonathan on Wednesday
promised that quite a number of cities in the country would begin to
enjoy uninterrupted power supply by June 2013.
He said the feat would be achieved by the time all ongoing power projects initiated by his government were completed.
Jonathan spoke in Islamabad, Pakistan,
while answering questions during an interactive session he had with
members of the Nigerian community living in the country.
He said, “We have (power) projects that
are going on; so, before the end of the second quarter, that is almost
middle of next year, most of these projects would have been inaugurated
and we will be evacuating and that time; quite a number of cities will
begin to have 24-hour of light.
“When we get to that point, you will see
that small scale enterprises will begin to make returns, and that is
the way we can create jobs.”
The President said generation was no
longer responsible for the problems being faced by the country in the
area of electricity supply.
He said the major challenge was the transmission of the generated power.
Jonathan said the nation’s power plants
currently had about 1,000 megawatts of electricity that could not be
evacuated because of problems related to transmission.
He said, “We have intervened robustly in
the power sector, and if you call back home, they will tell you that
power is improving, and we have promised that we will stabilise power
supply.
“Currently, we are generating more than
what our transmission capability can evacuate. We have over 1,000MW of
power that we cannot evacuate because of the transmission infrastructure
that has been weak over the years, and very recently, the government
started the intervention.”
He had earlier said Nigerians would soon
begin to enjoy direct flights to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
during a bilateral talk between him and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif
Zardari, in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The talk was held shortly after Jonathan
arrived Pakistan for the summit of Heads of State and Government of the
Group of Eight Developing Nations (D-8).
At the bilateral meeting, the two leaders agreed to energise the Nigeria-Pakistani Joint Commission.
They also agreed that once re-energised,
the joint commission would promote trade relationships between the two
countries and lead to the signing of a Bilateral Air Service Agreement.
The agreement, they said, would translate into direct flights between the two countries.
While admitting that a lot of
cooperation existed between the two countries in the area of security,
the leaders identified air services and banking as areas that needed
more attention.
At the meeting with Nigerians living in
Pakistan, Jonathan said his government had done a lot in improving all
the sectors of the country.
He assured them that when next they
visited the country, they would be impressed by the level of
achievements recorded by his government.
The President, however, regretted that
the devastating floods recently recorded in many parts of the country
drew his administration back.
He said the floods stagnated
developmental works, especially in the areas of giving a facelift to the
nation’s airports, and provision of good roads, among others.
Jonathan said notwithstanding the
temporary setback, significant changes had been recorded and a lot more
ground would have been covered by December 2013.
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