Gabriel Suswan, former Governor of Benue State and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power expressed his excitement as President Bola Tinubu signed the Electricity Act into Law. Responding to the question on clarification of whether President Tinubu merely signed an already assented bill by former President Buhari, Suswan said no, and not at all.
Gabriel Suswan, as a Senator
Further to his response, Gabriel Subswan emphasised the importance of electricity to the development of any country, especially in a developing economy like Nigeria. Former President Obasanjo, in 2004, initiated the process of decoupling the Power Sector. Every Nigerians welcomed the idea. A decoupled power sector would pave the way for efficiency and stability of the electricity supply in the country. Unfortunately, that wasn’t realized.
According to Suswan, when we had the opportunity in the National Assembly to amend the constitution, I, as a member of the constitution amendment committee headed by the then Deputy Senate President, Senator Omogege, decided that for us to enhance investment in the power sector and make it more stable, we have to decouple the sector further. We have to democratise the generation, transmission and distribution of power in Nigeria to have more people involved.
The Electricity Bill – Both Presidents Signed for different purpose
We amended the provisions that relate to the power sector in the 1999 constitution, as it relates to whether it’s on the concurrent list or only on the Federal Government list. So we moved it to the concurrent list to allow states and individuals with the capacity to be involved in the power supply. Former President Buhari signed the amendment of the Constitution as it relates to the power sector. The power sector was democratised to allow states’ involvement to generate, transmit and distribute power. The same applies to Individuals. In fact, Individuals who can generate about 1-megawatt power don’t need a license to do that.
What President Tinubu signed is the most important part of the act. This implies that the law has the grren light for full implementation. For the first time in this country, we are having Electricity Act 2023, the act he initaited.
So, in summary, the 2 Presidents signed diufferent things – One signed the ammended consitution to allow states to participate, while President Tinuibu signed to operationalize the act. President Tinubu’s action shows that he is focused about where he wanrts to take Nigeria to. Once the problem of power is fixed, the economy of this country will be changed. Unemploytment will be in the past. There will be general aggreaget economic activties, which will improve the GDP of the country.
President Bola Tinubu has proved to be the President serious to move Nigeria forward.
I’m very excited that I initited a bill that will impact possitively on al Nigerians and that bill has been assented to by the President of this country.
Senator Gabriel Suswan.
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