Adelabu laments power sector haven’t received required reforms to stabilize NESI
2 min read
By Chris Ochayi
The Minister of Power, Chief Adedayo Adelabu has lamented that the sector had not received consistent and required reforms to make desirable results in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI.
Chief Adelabu, who spoke at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC’s 4th seminar for Judges, recently held in Abuja, said the power sector never had consistent reforms supported by required resources like the judiciary .
He said, the legal profession has been able to achieve successes through reforms that were geared towards sustainability because reforms have been consistently developed and deployed over a period of time; and supported with the required resources to achieve results.
The Minister, however noted that, “If the Nigerian power sector had received the same consistent reforms supported by required resources, we would have more desirable results in NESI. ”
According to him, “We are seated in a gathering of Nigeria’s finest legal minds and the selected few that have been privileged to cross from the bar to the bench.
“It therefore becomes pertinent that must juxtapose the history/fortunes of the legal profession in Nigeria with that of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI.”
Adelabu went memory lane, said, “Oluwatoyin Doherty in her book, Legal Practice and Management in Nigeria, reports that “the first Nigerian to qualify as a lawyer was Christopher Alexander Sapara-Williams. He attended Wesley College Sheffield and in 1876 was a student at the Inner Temple. He was called to the English Bar in November 1879 and, after working in chambers for a year, he returned to Nigeria in 1880. He was enrolled in Nigeria on 11 August 1880.
“The following decade after Mr. C. A. Sapara-Williams returned to Nigeria so the development of the first electricity generation stations designed to serve communities in the United States and United Kingdom; and you may all wish to note that powerplants were also built and deployed to serve Lagos and other parts of colonial Nigeria.
” The legal profession in Nigeria has grown exponentially since the first lawyer was called to the bar and some of the achievements over the years include:
“The development of local capacity to train Nigerian legal practitioners.
“Development of local capacity to administer all aspects of the profession in Nigeria.
“Nigerians have occupied seats in international courts and have dispatched themselves creditably to the admiration of their peers.
“Nigerian practitioners have taken silk in the United Kingdom and constitute a sizable proportion of the black lawyers being called to the bar in foreign jurisdictions.
“The legal profession has been able to achieve these successes through reforms that were geared towards sustainability; and these reforms have been consistently developed and deployed over a period of time; and supported with the required resources to achieve results.
“If the Nigerian power sector had received the same consistent reforms supported by required resources, we would have more desirable results in NESI. “
