Firm tasks politicians on knowledge in oil, power before drafting manifestos

Manageing Director, Nextier Limited, Patrick Okigbo, yesterday in Abuja charged politicians to update their knowledge in oil, gas, and power sectors before drafting parties’ manifestoes.

He spoke at a two day workshop, where about 26 political parties signed up to be better informed about the challenges in the sectors. Nextier is an advisory firm with primary focus on agriculture, power and petroleum. Okigbo said the call is coming at a time that most stakeholders have decried the inability of the current administration to carry out campaign promises in the sectors.

This, he, said is particularly the need for reform in the oil and gas sector and improvement in the nation’s epileptic power supply.The managing director said: “Going into the 2019 general election, it is important for the political parties to understand what the fundamental issues are and what the solutions should be. The problem is that when the politicians get into power, they realise that the problems are significant than they thought.

“What we are looking at is to show the political parties the problems, so that when they are writing their manifestos, they would focus on the right problem and solution.”

With the initiative, he added, the parties would be better informed when the winner of the election eventually makes policies in the sectors.
Okigbo explained that the issues in power sector are complex, but revolves around financial liquidity, need for appropriate tariff, and energy theft.

“Politicians feel that Nigerians would push back, if we increase power tariff. But we have not communicated to them why the tariff needs to be increased. There are communities that have been paying high and have interrupted power supply.“While it is necessary for people to pay the right tariff, another issue is theft, especially the bypass of meters.

There is the need for reform and how to handle it, and we need political leadership to make the tough decisions,” he said. Okigbo noted that the inability of government to reform the oil and gas sector had pushed a lot of investments into other African countries. He said the parties needed to understand the environmental challenges in the Niger Delta, particularly the un-abating gas flaring the health challenges of illegal refineries.