The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, and former Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola, have denied that him or his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), made any promise of providing 20, 000 megawatts of electricity to Nigerians during the 2015 election campaigns.
It can be recalled that the Presidential flagbearer, and current president, Muhammadu Buhari and APC had during the campaign promised Nigerians 20,000 megawatts of electricity in its first four years in office if voted into power.
Also, the minister, who spoke during a lecture, titled Nigeria’s Electricity Challenge: A Roadmap for Change, stated that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), under his watch, would increase transmission capacity on the grid to 20,000 megawatts for over five years. In the lecture, Fashola can be recalled saying,"TCN has expressed a desire to increase transmission capacity from 5,000MW to 7,000MW, 10,000MW to 13,000MW to 16,000MW and 20,000MW over five years from 2016."
In February 2015, the APC, while unfolding its power agenda, stated that it would generate at least 20,000 megawatts of electricity in four years to surpass Nigeria’s consumption level of around 15,000MW.
The party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), in promising the 20,000 megawatts, said that the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan had only added 1,400MW to the national grid in four years.
But taking questions from journalists at the APC Secretariat, the minister and the national leadership of the party denied making such promise.
According to the minister and the NWC members led by the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, there was no time the party made such a promise, as they queried: “Where did you read that one? If you can’t produce where you read that, it means you are not right.”