Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has called on Nigerian youths to support the policies and programmes of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration as the reforms and transformation being undertaken by the government are designed to make life more meaningful for Nigerians.
Adelabu particularly charged the youths of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rise up in defence of the government at all times as the party owns the government of the day.
The minister spoke on Monday, when he received the national youth leader of the APC, Dr. Dayo Israel, who visited him in his office in Abuja, to brief him on the proposed Youth Summit of the party that will hold from September 3-5 in Abuja.
The minister took time to brief the youth leader, who was accompanied by a few others, about the policies and programmes of the government and used the opportunity to educate them about what President Tinubu is doing to get the country out of its present predicament.
According to the minister, Nigeria has suffered from bad governance over the years and efforts to change that narrative will certainly not be an easy one, but it must be done, in order for Nigeria to advance in development like other developed nations of the world.
“It is unfortunate that Nigeria has experienced bad governance over the years. Nigeria has gradually gone down, and the efforts being made by President Tinubu is the right way for us to get out of these challenges.
“Part of the complaint is that the cost of governance is high. But our constitution provides for a bicameral legislature with 109 Senators and 360 House of Representatives members.
This is very expensive for the country to run and President Tinubu can not, with a pronouncement, put a stop to this. If there would be changes, it must come with constitutional amendment”.He explains further: “ the Constitution mandates the President to appoint a minister from each of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. It also mandates the President to appoint a minister from each of the six geo-political zones of the country. If the President refuses to do this, there will be protests that he has marginalised a state or zone.
“So, when we had the recent protests by youths on ‘endbadgovernance’, the youths should try to understand that the Constitution we have makes governance expensive in Nigeria. So, this constitutional issue must be addressed so as to curb wastages in government business.
The President cannot just wake up and make pronouncements on these fundamental constitutional provisions”, the minister said.He called the youths to support the efforts of President Tinubu in ensuring that past mistakes are corrected through ongoing reforms and policies.“Reforms and transformations that will usher Nigeria to prosperity will not come with ease, considering the level of the rot in the system. We must endure and understand the government. This government is changing the narratives and is determined to leave a better Nigeria to all of us.
“As youths of the party, you must rise to the occasion of defending the government, defend the position of government because the party owns the government of the day.
“The President believes so much in the youths and that is why you can see that his cabinet is dominated by the youths. You can also see that many of the appointments he is making are youth-based.
“The policies and programmes of the government, particularly the removal of the petrol subsidy has increased allocations to state governments through the governors, so as youths of the party, you also owe it a duty to inform the youths protesting that the governors of their states are receiving double and in some cases triple of the allocations they used to receive”, he said. He also outlined the measures that he has taken to transform the power ministry in the one year that he resumed.
He said President Tinubu has provided the needed support to make sure the power sector gets back the confidence of Nigerians, once again.
“President Tinubu wants to use the power sector to drive reforms in other sectors of the economy. If you recall in his speech to Nigerians on January 1, he spoke extensively about that sector. Power is one of the sensitive campaign promises he made to Nigerians and he is determined to fulfil that promise.
The sector was almost jinxed before we came in but thank God that confidence is coming back now to the sector from the general public.
“Within one year that we came into office, we have been able to increase power generation from 4, 000 megawatts to 5,155 and have a target to move it to 6,000 megawatts by December this year. We are also working on fixing the infrastructure across the power sector value chain”, the minister said.
He also disclosed that some of the institutions that cannot cope with the high cost of electricity such as the universities, teaching hospitals and small businesses, will enjoy the renewable energy initiative being driven by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
Speaking earlier, the national youth leader commended the minister for the noticeable improvement in the supply of electricity to businesses and households in the country.
He also invited the minister to speak at the ministerial town hall meeting at the Progressives Young leaders summit to be held from September 3-5, 2024.
The youth leader said the summit was to give Nigerian youths the opportunity to contribute their voices to shaping the country in line with the renewed hope agenda of the administration.
