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Power crisis: FG seeks foreign experts for solution

President Umaru YarAdua, on Thursday, said he was ready to seek the assistance of foreign experts to find a lasting solution to the power crisis in the country.

Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of the Aba Independent Power Project in Aba, Abia State, he said he would not relent in his efforts to put end an to the perennial power problem.

He added that the development had hampered national development. The firm was owned by Geometric Power Ltd.

YarAdua who was represented by the Minister of State for Energy (Gas), Mr. Emmanuel Odushina, described the Aba power plant as as a reference point in the ongoing power generation efforts of the government.

The President also explained that his absence at the ceremony was because he was abroad in his efforts to reach out to the international experts in the power sector for possible assistance and collaboration for the development of Nigerias energy sector.

The president lauded Prof Barth Nnaji for his initiative and faith in his fatherland which motivated his establishing the Aba IPP. He therefore called on other investors both local and foreign to borrow a leaf from him (Nnaji).

YarAdua said, It is gratifying to note that while we are soliciting for assistance of foreign experts and investors, our own men and women in the diaspora as exemplified by Prof Nnaji are responding positively to our call to be part of Nigerias development.

The $250m project which we are here today is the first major investment by a Nigerian in diaspora.”

He assured that institutional frameworks had been put in place to help genuine investors contribute positively in taking Nigeria to the level of meeting its energy needs both now and in the future.

In his own address, Abia State Governor, Mr. Theodore Orji, commended the President for declaring a state of emergency in the power sector, stating that ”drastic situations call for drastic measures and no measure applied to our power sector would be deemed drastic.