[Documents menu] Documents menu

There'll Be Electricity for All By 2001, Anyim Assures

By Sufuyan Ojeifo, Vanguard Daily, 21 October 2000

Jakarta, Indonesia—The Federal Government plans to focus on the provision of electricity to every nook and cranny of Nigeria in the 2001 budget, Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim has said .

He spoke at a dinner organised for him and members of the Nigerian delegation to the 104th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)in Jakarta Tuesday night by Ambassador Saidu Mohammed. The dinner was also attended by members of the Nigerian community.

Senator Anyim said that the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo believed in making steady progress, stressing that the approach of government in this regard has been to present a total package, a wholistic approach that will touch every nook and cranny of the country at the same time.

For instance, the areas of electricity, water and road, the government has been working consistently towards achieving a level of development in Nigeria such that in the next one year, every community would have either electricity or water and road or both.

According to him the idea here is that the structure is in place; the policy is in place; preliminary works have been done and an idea of what you may want to know is that over the last one year, Nigeria has, in the area of power generation, generated twenty times more than its normal requirement.

And the budget of 2001 is going to focus on transmission and the idea is that by the end of next year, virtually every village would have had electricity in Nigeria..

Senator Anyim spoke on steps already taken by the legislative arm of government to promote development of the nation, citing the number of bills that had been passed into law, especially the Niger-Delta Development Commission Bill.

He said because of the concern generated over the Niger-Delta area by the restiveness and tension prevalent therein, the National Assembly in collaboration with the presidency that initiated the bill made efforts that the bill was concluded and passed into law.