We read with some form of astonishment,  a statement credited to the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister of power in the Daily Trust newspaper of Thursday 12^th October 2009 that the NIPP projects are not part of the 6,000 megawatts promised Nigerians by Federal Government.

Indeed, the projects are part of the plans aimed at generating the 6,000 megawatts. We recall that  the release of the sum of N303.23 billion to the Ministry of Power earlier in the year by the National Economic Council for the implementation of the National Integrated Power Projects was with the objective to attain the 6000 megawatts by December 2009 and implement outstanding transmission and distribution projects.

The estimated power generation capacity from these NIPPs is about 7,000 megawatts when fully completed, but out of the 17 projects only a few have been commissioned.

We wish to state that at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), we believe the real problem with the implementation of the NIPPs is that square pegs are not put in square holes. The Managing Director in charge of the project is an accountant. How can an accountant be in a position to effectively run such a position which has nothing to do with his training and it will work?

The truth is that these wrongly placed appointees are misadvising the president.

However, we are optimistic that the right thing will be done so that the right people are appointed to positions where they possess the requisite skills and training to run the place effectively and give the best of advice to the authorities.