![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Babatunde-Raji-Fashola.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFashola disclosed this while speaking at the Nextier Power Dialogue on Wednesday night in Abuja.<\/p>\n
The minister, while acknowledging that there were problems in the power sector, explained that it was not the Federal Government\u2019s problem if citizens in the country do not have electricity, especially since the sector was privatised.<\/p>\n
Fashola said, \u201cThere are problems without a doubt and we must deal with them. But let me remind you, all of the assets that the Ministry of Power used to control for power have been sold by the last administration before I came. And so if you don\u2019t have power, it is not the government\u2019s problem. Let us be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who are operating the power sector, generation and distribution are now privately owned companies. I am here because I am concerned. If your telephone is not working, it is not the minister of communication that you go to. Let us be very clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for those of you who want to weaponise electricity, face the businessmen who have taken it up. Let us be honest. If your bank over-charges you interest, is it the minister of finance you go to? So let\u2019s be clear. This is now a private business by Act of parliament 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy role is regulatory, oversight and policy, but I have a problem which is the fact that I can\u2019t see a problem and turn my back, so I\u2019m getting involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the people you should be talking to about transformers is not me, the ministry doesn\u2019t supply transformers anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that NERC (Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission) is the referee of the game. I am FIFA (Federation of International Football Association). And it is not right as you said that FIFA gets involved, because whether the referee makes a mistake or not the goal stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the FIFA man does not enter the field to say go and change the result, but it\u2019s an interesting analogy that I\u2019ve also contemplated in my head and that\u2019s why you didn\u2019t catch me by too much surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it is important to allow the referee to continue to decide the game because investors like to know who decides.\u201d\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has stated that federal government is not responsible for non availability of electricity. Fashola disclosed this while speaking at the Nextier Power Dialogue on Wednesday night in Abuja. The minister, while acknowledging that there were problems in the power sector, explained that it was not the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,6441,4797],"class_list":["post-69486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-electricity","tag-fashola","tag-fg"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}