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 Published
June 30th, 2010
Nigeria is
one country with the poorest quality of electricity supply.
Manufacturing firms, rural and metropolitan businesses rated
their quality of supply the lowest and did in fact have the
poorest quality of power delivered for all attributes. More
than 90% of Nigerians cannot boast of 16hours of electricity
supply daily. Power outages plague Nigeria's businesses,
leading those who can afford them to rely on
fossil-fuel-burning generators.
For millions of Nigerian people and businesses without
access to electricity, the day finishes much earlier than in
richer countries for lack of proper lighting. We struggle to
read by candle light. We lack refrigeration for keeping food
and medicines fresh. Those appliances that we do have are
powered by batteries and private power generating plants,
which eat up a large share of our incomes.
It’s been more than sixty days since President Jonathan
issued a 30-day ultimatum to the presidential committee
headed by him to roll out a workable blueprint for the power
sector. This is coming at the heels of previous attempts and
failures by the Obasanjo and Yaradua administrations. The
initial activities and hype have however giving way to
business as usual. The various committees have failed to
come up with a workable plan; the President has quickly
forgotten the urgency and need to address this issue that is
critical to the Nigerian economy. Rather, he has resorted to
touring the glove, from France to South Africa and now
Canada.
What I want to do here is to critically dissect the problems
in the Nigerian power sector and provide pragmatic solutions
on what President Goodluck Jonathan must do to solve the
perennial problem of inadequate electricity generation and
distribution in the country.
The issues – corruption
The most critical issue that must be addressed in the
Nigerian power sector is the problem of corruption in the
polity. The failure of Obasanjo and Yaradua’s administration
in revamping the power sector was not because of lack of
good intent or finance, they failed because of huge money
mapped out for various programs were embezzled and
mismanaged.
There are so many questions on corruption and gross
mismanagement begging for answers in the power sector. What
happened to the estimated $13.5 bn spent by Obasanjos
Administration on the power sector? The amount of money that
has been sunk into the power sector under the presidency of
Olusegun Obasanjo or the billons pumped into the Independent
National Power Projects (INPP) is probably enough to solve
the Nigerian power problem. The current the ongoing reforms
in the nation’s energy/power sector anchored around Egbin
Generating Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria, PHCN is bound to fail unless the
Nigerian public sector is cleaned from corruption and
corrupt practices.
Nitel failed to provide functional telephone services in the
country until we were rescued by private telecom firms;
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has failed to
refine the crude oil in our backyards and we have resorted
to importation of refined petroleum products; Nipost and
Railway Corporations have been mismanaged and rendered
ineffective; Nigerian Airways ‘raped’ and baptized ‘Virgin
Nigeria’; National Population Commission (NPC) failed to
produce National ID card after Billions were spent; in all
these clear acts of corrupt practices and mismanagement,
nobody has been prosecuted and convicted.
Simply put, it is logical to conclude that any investment in
the power sector under the administration of PHCN is bound
to fail. So, why waste time and huge sum of money when all
we need to is sell PHCN, maintain lasting peace in Niger
Delta to guarantee gas supply and independent power projects
will spring up to sustain the power sector?
Wastefulness - Natural Gas flaring
Another big problem in the Nigerian power sector is
wastefulness. Nigeria, according to World Bank estimates, is
currently losing on the average more than $ 2.5 billion
(N332.5 billion) annually to gas flaring. At about 57 % of
the daily production of over 2bn cf, the volume of flared
gas is said to be capable of generating up to 6 GW of
electric power annually.
Meanwhile, South Africa recently obtained a loan from World
Bank for generation of Additional 4,800 Megawatts of
Electricity by 2012 at the cost of 3.75 US Dollars. Even
those of us - environmentalist - that care about the
degradation of the environment and the risk posed by
greenhouse gases in the changing climate can’t help but be
fascinated at this additional power generation by South
Africa through coal plant – worst greenhouse gases emitter.
The lessons for Nigeria from this however is that with
proper planning and clear focus, you can use what you have
to generate what you need. South Africa has abundance coal
reserve that can last for hundreds of years and that’s what
they are using to generate the cheapest electricity in the
world. Nigeria has abundance gas reserve, but what do we do
with it? We flare about 60% of the gas and export about 90%
of the rest as Liquefied Natural Gas; embezzle the revenue
generated and watch our power generating capacity drop to
mere 3, 000 Megawatts.
The problems – inconsistency and lack of planning
One of the biggest problems we have in our approach to
issues in Nigeria is lack of long term planning and
inconsistency. Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, Mr. Ima Niboro while taking about ongoing reform
said that, “the Presidential Task Force is charged with
developing and driving the action plan for the nation’s
power sector with achievable targets within the lifespan of
the present administration.” If by “lifespan of the present
administration,” Niboro means May 2011, then, somebody
should inform him and all the committees working on this
reform that the only achievable target is the sell of PHCN.
Even if PHCN is restructured and sold, where is the
guarantee that the next administration will not reverse
that? What happened to long term planning?
From the above analysis, it is clear that the current
approach at reforming the power sector by Jonathan’s
administration is a repeat of the same tried and tired
attempts by Obasanjo and Yaradua’s administrations that
failed.
But we don’t have to go down through this same path.
Churchill Okonkwo writes from Washington DC
Churchill.okonkwo@gmail.com
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