The Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, says power will be reasonably stable across the country before the middle of 2014.
The promise comes months after the conclusion of the first phase of the privatisation process of the power sector.
On November 1 2013, new owners took over the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria, a process that has been described as the most transparent in West Africa.
President Jonathan told a congregation of Christian Faithful in a New Year Service in Abuja on Wednesday that his administration would do its best to ensure a vibrant economy, create more jobs, uphold good governance and provide food for Nigerians.
The year 2014 is a special year in Nigeria’s history, as it marks modern Nigeria’s 100 years of existence.
“All Nigerians should endeavour to know the areas they will participate as we celebrate the nation’s centenary,” Jonathan said.
He pleaded with politicians to place priority on the interest of the country more than their individual interests.
“As we continue to play politics in that direction. Leaders will come and go but the country will stay,” he said.
The president said that the expected stable power supply before the middle of the year would stimulate the economy.
In a New Year message, President Jonathan had urged all Nigerians to place the higher interests of national unity, peace, stability and progress above all other considerations and work harder in their particular fields of human endeavour to contribute more significantly to the attainment of the country’s collective aspirations.
At the service, the Senate President, Senator David Mark, called on Nigerians to make concerted efforts to end the security challenges facing the nation.
“It is not the fact that we have security challenges that is the issue. It is what we are doing to bring this to an early and logical conclusion,” he said.
Clergymen in different churches across the nation have stressed the need for the leaders to strive to touch the lives of the citizens in order to bring the needed change in Nigeria.
In Lagos, Pastor Chris Okotie said that in the coming years, the “politics of perfidy and mendacity will give way for the politics of fidelity and veracity.
“We are going to see men and women emerge that don’t even have political history but are going to become so influential in the days ahead that Nigeria will have hope,” he said.