About 17 years after he left office, the Federal Government has commended the investment of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the power sector.

Obasanjo had been criticised by many who said there was nothing to show for his reported $16bn investment in the power sector.

In 2008, the House of Representatives described the $16bn reportedly spent on power projects by the Obasanjo administration as “a colossal waste”.

Also, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project in 2016 called for an investigation into the expenditure.

When he assumed office, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari threw a jibe at Obasanjo, saying he spent $16bn on power projects during his tenure, without corresponding power supply to Nigerians.

Before he came into office, President Bola Tinubu had also accused Obasanjo of spending $16bn on power without corresponding supply of electricity to Nigerians.

But the current Minister of Power, Adedayo Adelabu, said the former President spent $8bn in the nation’s electricity sector, and not the $16bn being reported.

He said it was good that Obasanjo invested the money back then in constructing of power plants across the nation.

Adelabu, who spoke on Channels Television’s News Night programme said the power plants built under Obasanjo’s administration are still visible, stating that seven out of the 10 protects were completed and enough to serve the nation.

However, he regretted the failure to maximise the capacity of these power plants to generate more electricity.

Speaking on the controversial $16bn spending by the Obasanjo administration, Adelabu said, “While I will not sit here and give you facts about what transpired, I was not in the sector then, I can tell you that the 10 Nigerian Integrated Power Projects under President Olusegun Obasanjo, are there for us to see. And I’m aware they spent over $8bn out of the so-called $16bn that people bandied around. We can see those plants today.

“We have two in Olorunsogo, that is Papalanto in Ogun State. We have two in Omotosho, close to Ore in Ondo State. We have one in Benin. We have Egbema that has not been completed. We have in Calabar. We have about 10 of them. I know seven of them were completed and they are under the management of the Nigeria Delta Power Holding Company today. They have capacity totalling about 5,000MW.

“It was good we made those investments then but the issue is, have we really optimised the benefit of those investments. I would say no!” he said.

Adelabu recalled that he visited some of the power plants recently, saying they were not working to capacity due to gas constraints.

“That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. Fine, we have invested so much in those gas plants, but have we optimised them?

“So, I’m saying, today in Nigeria, if you want to double our electricity supply, we can double it with the existing capacity that we have before we start talking of even establishing new generation companies.