Danjuma Goje, senator representing Gombe Central, says Nigeria should hand over the management of its electricity sector to China for about 20 years to achieve stable power supply.
Goje spoke on Wednesday during the senate confirmation hearing of Joseph Tegbe.
The former Gombe governor said repeated interventions across different segments of the power sector had failed to produce lasting results.
“The best thing to do, in my opinion, and in the opinion of some others, is to swallow our pride,” he said.
“Call on one of the major successful advanced countries, preferably China, because their cost of labour and cost generally is low.
“Give them this project of power in Nigeria. Run it for 20 years. Give us stable power. Get your money back and move out.”
Goje said stable electricity would accelerate development across all sectors of the economy.
“And within these 20 years, we’ll have stable power, and you know the meaning of stable power? It means real development,” he said.
“All other areas will work perfectly.”
The senator criticised the piecemeal approach to power sector reforms, citing interventions by Siemens in transmission infrastructure.
According to him, fixing one aspect of the sector while neglecting others only shifts the crisis from one segment to another.
“When you go to Siemens, Siemens will take one section of the power sector and will do something about transmission,” he said.
“By the time they finish transmission, the problem will erupt in generation. Then they’ll go to generation. After generation, the problem will erupt in distribution.”
Goje also accused electricity distribution companies of failing to provide critical infrastructure such as transformers.
“These days, even transformers are not provided by the distribution companies,” he said.
He advised Tegbe to consider a wholesale agreement with an advanced country to handle generation, transmission and distribution together.
“Come and have a look at our power sector wholesale — generation, transmission, distribution — and see how we can get it right, at least for the next 20 years, so that Nigeria will develop and catch up with other countries,” he said.
Goje added that the arrangement should not be viewed as debt accumulation but as a long-term investment model.
“They will run the business, make their money, and leave us with stable light,” he added.
