The Federal Government has been urged to develop the political will to address the unstable power supply that is driving many investors out of the country.

President of the Nigeria Society of Chemical Engineers (NSCHE), Tony Ogbuigwe, who advised while fielding questions from newsmen during the just-concluded 32nd Fellow Conference in Lagos, said the theme of the conference, “Power Sector: The Nexus Between Industrialisation and Economic Development,” was chosen in the light of foreign investors leaving Nigeria in droves because of the unstable power supply.

He said: “NSCHE is determined to find lasting solutions to perennial power failure in Nigeria. We discovered that many investors are leaving Nigeria in droves because of unstable power supply and we have determined to find out why and make recommendations to the government.

“Many industries are closing down and leaving the country as many of them were unable to continue in business because the cost of providing their power is prohibitive

“The NSCHE noticed that inadequate power was their reason. So, we decided to focus on what we can do about it and make our findings known to the government ”

“Many industries that left Nigeria were spending between 30 to 40 per cent of their income on power which is very unnecessary. If you are abroad, you don’t spend such money because the power is there. You just hit the ground running for your business.

“The disclosure by the Keynote Speaker and Chairman of Ikeja Electric, Folake Soetan, that Nigeria had the potential of generating 12.522 megawatts of electricity from the existing plants but was only able to transmit 4,000 megawatts and not 8,100 megawatts because of lack of downstream capacity to insufficient gas supply was alarming.”

He said that this should not be so if there were coordination between the power plants and gas suppliers in the country.

Ogbuigwe, however, appealed to the government to demonstrate “political will to make decisions that would make the country grow economically and industrially.”