Upon his dismissal as Power Minister, Sale Mamman has said that he achieved “giant strides” while in office within two years.
He made this known in an appreciation note he posted on his verified Facebook account on Thursday following his sacking by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Buhari had on Wednesday sacked 63-year-old Mamman (Taraba State); and his 75-year-old Agriculture counterpart, Mohammed Nanono (Kano State). He had also redeployed the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abubakar, to the Ministry of Agriculture while the Minister of State for Works, Abubakar Aliyu, took over as Minister of Power.
“I wish to reiterate once more, that this process shall be continuous,” presidential spokesman Femi Adesina had quoted Buhari as saying, adding that the decision was taken after “critical self-review” of the performances of the two ministers.
Adesina had also said that the President considered “food security” and the “power problem” in the country before taking the action.
The two dismissed ministers were in August 2019 sworn in as part of the over 40 ministers who presently constitute the Federal Executive Council.
Mamman in his appreciation note wrote, “With a deep sense of humility and submission to the will of Almighty Allah I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for granting me the opportunity to serve in his administration and contribute my quota to our beloved Nation Nigeria, I am grateful for the confidence, belief and trust he placed in me and most especially the support he gave me during my tenure at the Power House and his leadership direction. I remain committed to his agenda for our great Nation and shall continue to support him in any way possible.
“I am also grateful to His Excellency the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and his leadership of the Power Sector Supervisory Working Group.
“To my colleagues at the Federal Executive Council, my sincere appreciation for the coordinated and Productive Working relationships we had, and also the personal relationships forged.
“My sincere gratitude also goes out to everyone at the Federal Ministry of Power and its supervising agencies, without your tremendous and selfless efforts, we couldn’t have recorded the giant strides we achieved in the past 2 years.
“To my Personal Aides, thank you all for your dedication, loyalty and selflessness.
“To our great Party the All Progressive Congress, thank you for the platform that has given Nigerians Progressive leadership.
“Most of all to the people of my great State Taraba and my fellow Nigerians, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.”
Mixed reactions trailed the post of the ex-minister. While some Nigerians took to his comment section to show they are unimpressed with his handling of the power sector, others praised Mamman for doing his best.
Nigeria, whose available power generation has been hovering between 3,000 megawatts and 4,500MW in recent years, currently exports electricity to three neighbouring countries, namely Republics of Niger, Benin and Togo. The Power Ministry under Mamman had in 2020 considered supplying electricity to the Republic of Chad, despite the epileptic power supply in Nigeria.
Notably, the incessant collapse of the national power grid, astronomical rise in electricity tariffs paid by Nigerians have worsened the blackout being experienced by households and businesses in parts of Nigeria.
A World Bank report in 2021 stated that a total of 74 per cent of power users in Nigeria are dissatisfied with the supply of electricity across the country, and while 93 per cent of metered power users paid their bills regularly, 78 per cent of electricity consumers in Nigeria received less than 12 hours of supply daily.