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Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has denied ever saying that the country’s power problems could be fixed in six months.
Fashola, while he was governor of Lagos State during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, was quoted to have said that a serious government at the centre should be able to fix power within six months.
And Jonathan, on Thursday, reminded Fashola of thise words, wondering why as minister in the power sector under a new administration under President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to fix power in more than two years.
Jonathan spoke in Abuja when he received one of the national chairmanship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, and members of his campaign team in his office.
READ: APC deployed lies, propaganda, at professional level – Jonathan
Jonathan said: “The PDP administration for 16 years did well and will continue to do well but this administration has done nothing. They deployed propaganda and lies at a professional level.
“In the power sector, we did well to revive it. A state governor attacked our government, saying that any serious government should be able to fix the power challenge within six months.
“Today, APC has been in power for how many years now? Fortunately the then governor is in the APC government as a minister.”
Reacting to the report by The Punch, Senior Special Adviser on Communications, Hakeem Bello, who spoke on behalf of Fashola stated that it was unfortunate to know that Jonathan would accuse the current government of not doing enough in the power sector.
He said: “It is unfortunate that the former President does not have his facts right. This is because there was nowhere that the current Minister of Power, Works and Housing and former Governor of Lagos State said he could fix Nigeria’s power challenges in six months.
“If he (Jonathan) needs clarification, we can provide that, instead of stating things that are not factual with respect to the minister and the power sector.”