10th May, 2012
Tired of waiting for the Federal Government to provide electricity for the country, the Lagos State Government is making plans to generate enough electricity to power the state and its commercial activities.
The Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Energy, Mineral Resources and Waterfront Infrastructure, Lanre Ogunyemi, made this known recently.
The Committee chairman, who recently embarked on a trip with a delegation of other lawmakers to the Universal Energy Conference in Stafford City , Houston, Texas , USA , said the trip gave them the opportunity to understand how the state could serve the people in this regard.
He said the state government, in synergy with the state House of Assembly was determined to ensure that the power outages are frustrated within a short period.
“As the commercial nerve centre and heartbeat of Nigeria as well as being the financial hub of the West African region, Lagos must aggressively pursue a power policy drive that would not only drive its enormous economic opportunities and potential but also create a boom in the activities for small, medium and large scale enterprises.
“The Experience from the conference and expertise available therein alongside the recently concluded Ehingbeti 2012 Economic Summit are expected to be catalysts for enhanced power revolution in Lagos to the utmost benefit of our people.
“As Lagos has always led the way in all spheres of governance and thereby a copiable example in good governance, it is the intention of the legislative arm to back the state government with the necessary framework and impetus to achieve power efficiency and sufficiency for the state.
“We have resolved that the state further empowers the energy ministry to do the needful and to devote a substantial part of year 2012 budget to Energy,” Ogunyemi said.
The other lawmakers who were part of the delegation included the Chairman, House Committee on House Services and Special Duties, Ipoola Omisore; Chairman, House Committee on Information, Security and Strategy, Olusegun Olulade and the Deputy Leader of the House, Lola Akande.
—Eromosele Ebhomele