Babatunde Fashola, minister of works, power and housing, has
advised those displeased about his supervision of three ministries to
tender their complaints to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Responding
to a question at a town hall meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, Fashola said
he only plays a supervisory role in the ministries.
He added that Buhari decided to merge three ministries in order to reduce the cost of running government.
“Whether
I can cope with three ministries or not, let us be clear on this. On
the one hand, we have spoken about the cost of running government. And
in trying to mitigate or reduce that cost, Mr. President, in his own
wisdom, decided to merge three ministries together,” he said.
“So,
my work really there is supervisory and directional. Today in the
ministry of works, and in the ministry of housing, where there are over
4000 personnel, the number is reducing. The ministry of power has barely
800 staff today and the number is reducing as we are gaining traction.
“So,
it is no longer a government-driven sector, it is now a
government-regulated sector driven by private sector. And if you have
issues about that, I think you should complain to Mr. President. For me,
the privilege is to serve my country in whatever capacity I am
designated to.”
Fashola said over the years, the ministries that were merged together have had close working relationship.
He
explained that his role as the overseer of the ministries is just
directional, noting that the privatization of the power sector has made
things easier.
“Two of those ministries have had a natural
relationship over years, they were either works and housing, or lands,
works and something. In adding power to it, let us remember that
essentially the work that is left in power is just to complete the
privitisation and complete the transmission grid.
“The
distribution is now in the hands of companies. All of the work that NEPA
(National Electric Power Authority) used to do is now in terms of
distributing power is now in the hands of 11 companies. What they used
to do in terms of generating power is now in the hands of six companies.
“The
agency called NERC (National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC)
is the regulator of the power sector, in getting licenses issued and so
on and so forth. And a statutory company called MBET. All of these
institutions are taking positions and evolving.”
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