How did the Nigerian nation get to this traumatic stage, where power supply has gradually become non-existent? Because the various military administrations before 1999 were purely an aberration, unaccountable and wayward, one cannot really place them in the context of this critical analysis. Therefore, from the regimes of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan to the present time of Muhammadu Buhari, the question is: what has been happening in terms of efforts to reposition the power sector in Nigeria for optimal efficiency and commonsense utilization?
It is nothing but a most painful and devastating reality that the people of Nigeria have been drilled mercilessly and are still being tormented by lack of adequate supply of electricity since the artificial independence of 1960.
In spite of the huge material, intellectual, natural and capital endowment deposited almost limitlessly within the geographical entity, known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the nation has remained in limbo in terms of power supply and several other infrastructural facilities.
All over the country those who are in the business of importing, distributing and retailing all categories of power generating machines are smiling to the banks and praying profusely that the authorities will never find lasting solution to the monster of inadequate electricity supply.
The problem of unhindered power supply is like a hydra-headed dragon that is so intoxicated with so much energy and daring the helpless citizens of Nigeria to a brawl. Things are really bad and sad!
This is where the nation has found itself in the name of power supply. The economic system in Nigeria is crawling to say the least because of inadequate power to smoothly power its enormous engine.
And the high cost of running various business outfits from the multinational, unlimited industries and down to one-man retailing venture on electricity generating sets, with the attending safety hazards is rubbing heavily on the overall cost of goods and services in the country, where the common man is just living by the day, hoping that things get better.
How did the Nigerian nation get to this traumatic stage, where power supply has gradually become non-existent? Because the various military administrations before 1999 were purely an aberration, unaccountable and wayward, one cannot really place them in the context of this critical analysis.
Therefore, from the regimes of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan to the present time of Muhammadu Buhari, the question is: what has been happening in terms of efforts to reposition the power sector in Nigeria for optimal efficiency and commonsense utilization?
Ex-President Obasanjo drafted the Cicero of Esa Oke, late Chief Bola Ige to fix the power sector to no avail.
Even as Bola Ige tried frantically to reposition the Ministry of Power and Steel, political cronyism and policy inconsistency on the part of the Olusegun Obasanjo, who initiated the nationwide gas master plan project, increase in power generation was next to zero.
It is a frightening reality that in the midst of billions of naira that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo poured into the power sector program, corruption became a monster that rendered the whole exercise a grandiose failure.
However, it was a credit to the Obasanjo regime for identifying a sincere road map for power generation in Nigeria, because the strategic East-North gas pipelines project that was to move from Calabar through Enugu and Ajaokuta to Kano to secure alternative sources of energy was left to fate as soon as Dr. Goodluck Jonathan stepped in in 2010.
Most devastatingly, the Jonathan presidency that promised vehemently during the 2011 Presidential campaigns to fix the power sector once and for all abandoned the gas master plan project.
By deciding to deregulate the power sector, ex-President Jonathan failed to do the right thing when he allowed his political contractors/bootlickers that paid peanuts to obtain the privatization license to sell major electricity assets.
Annoyingly the friends of the government of the day that took over the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) with a new name of Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN) do not possess the required technical know-how and capacity to take the power sector to the next level of optimal efficiency.
Today those that now run the power distributing companies have manifested their chronic insincerity and unlimited sense of greed by not providing electricity to the people, but are ripping them off by neck breaking fixed charges, and lately slamming incredible high tariff; even after the nation’s House of Representatives had kicked against such wicked practices and the court granted an injunction, halting further increase in electricity tariff.
Today, the atmosphere is being charged as the civil society groups are fuming and angry that the distribution companies have become genuine enemies of the people as a result of their conscienceless policies which weigh heavily on the people’s pockets with nothing to show for them.
Now in the last 16 years over $30 billion dollars have been dumped into the power sector without any success. Could the nation have rushed to deregulate the power sector in a nation where poverty is widespread, Knowing fully well that the United States only deregulated its power sector just 25 years ago?
And only 16 out of 50 states in the United States have seen the wisdom to embrace full deregulation. The fact that Nigeria, as a nation can only boast of 1,400 megawatts with a population of over 170 million citizens only indicates that the power reforms policy has failed woefully, and successive governments in the country have failed the people.
What is the way out of this disgracing scenerio? Nigeria is the 7th largest producer of coal on the world. And with abundant coal reserves in Enugu, Gombe and Kogi states the country can look in that direction to sustain it power sector.
If United States, China, Indonesia and Australia have succeeded to power their power plants with coal fire, then Nigeria has no excuse to join the queue to stabilize its power plants.
And with renewable energy alternatives, like solar, biofuels and traditional biomass the relevant authorities in Nigeria must tackle the power problem without delay.
In all of these President Muhammadu Buhari should declare a state of emergency in the power sector and initiate strategic plans to transform the country and place it on the track of unprecedented development. Right now, Nigerians are paying to stay in darkness and it should not be like that.
– Alltimepost.com Editorial.
This should be the number one issue for the Buhari administration. You cannot industrialize without power.