Group decries N17.4b budget for fuel, generators in MDAs

Supports restructuring

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has condemned the resolve to spend N17,397,470,115 billion on purchase of fuel and generators for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) during the 2017 fiscal year.

It said that going by a recent study by the Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE), such fund would have been utilised to generate 46 megawatts of solar power and 650 new jobs during construction and operation of the solar power equipment.

ERA/FoEN’s Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, stated this during the energy governance and transition training workshop on the prospects of just energy transition held in Abuja.

The group noted that Nigeria’s continuous dependence on fossil fuels and plants and generators contradicts her nationally-determined contribution pledge of 20 per cent unconditional emission reduction and 45 per cent conditional reduction based on green climate funding and other international fiscal instruments.

It, therefore, urged the three tiers of government to take proactive steps towards energy transition by committing five per cent of the yearly budget to achieving energy transition across a 10-year period.

Meanwhile, the group has reiterated its call for the restructuring of the polity, saying it remains the panacea to the multifaceted problems besetting the polity.It stated: “It is gratifying that the call for national restructuring is gathering momentum from high and low and across regions making it a priority for citizens and as the basis for co-existence.”

“Rather, it should promptly embrace the call and commit to national orientation on values and proper political and economic restructuring based on true federalism. Fiscal federalism and the devolution of power to the federating units to control their resources and the protection of their environment.”