By Oladele Oladipupo
The global index for electricity generation is one million people for 1,000 megawatts. The current population of Nigeria is over 200 million people battling for 5,000 megawatts of electricity. For us to meet the global index for electricity generation, we need to generate about 200,000 megawatts of electricity. For instance, South Africa with a population of 45 million people generates 50,000 megawatts. It is shameful that successive administrations have failed to provide reliable and efficient energy for the masses.
The challenges that have militated against the provision of regular power supply in Nigeria are worth examining and possible solutions should be proffered. Between 1950 and 2014, the country had four different institutions that were saddled with the responsibility of providing electricity through hydro and thermal energy. The four institutions were namely: the Niger Dam Authority, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, the National Electricity Power Authority, and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
During the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the Federal Government deemed it fit to privatise the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria because of its poor performance. This action led to the establishment of the Bureau of Public Enterprise which is responsible for the privatisation of all public enterprises. During the privatisation exercise, the World Bank played a prominent role by offering technical support.
For instance, the World Bank made it a policy that all the government facilities that were slated for privatisation should follow environmental due diligence. This means that an environmental audit must be conducted for all the facilities prior to privatisation in line with the World Bank Environmental Audit Guidelines.
Tenders were placed in various national newspapers calling for expression of interest. Environmental audits of all the hydroelectricity power stations and the thermal stations located at Kainji, Shiroro, Jebba and Egbin were conducted in line with the World Bank procedural Environmental Audit Guidelines. An Environmental Audit Certification process was jointly done by both the BPE and the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The result of the privatisation now led to the unbundling of the defunct PHCN into three different companies namely: The Transmission Company of Nigeria, The Distribution Companies, and the Generation Companies.
The Federal Government owes 40 per cent of the total shares and is in control of the transmission with only one national grid. It is important to state here that when PHCN was unbundled, the buyers had some tooting problems such as the lack of expertise, funds and managerial skills coupled with inherited obsolete equipment. Recently, students of the University of Benin took to the streets blocking the major roads in Benin, the Edo State capital, to protest weeks of electricity cut. Also, students of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria were lamenting the erratic power supply on their campus.
On April 24, 2024, students of the American University of Nigeria staged a peaceful demonstration against incessant power outages. Electricity is critical to the operation of tertiary institutions and also fundamental to learning, industrialisation and development. Recall that in February 2022, the Academic Staff Union of Universities went on an eight-month industrial action. The strike resulted in the loss of the entire academic session. Part of ASUU’s demands focused on adequate funding of public universities and the provision of infrastructure, mostly water supply and electricity. Today, the country is grappling with an erratic power supply which has now crippled the economy. Our national grid frequently collapses. According to the International Energy Agency, Nigeria’s national grid collapsed 46 times between 2017 and 2023.
The challenges of the power sector are numerous. They include but are not limited to corruption, lack of patriotism, lack of political will, obsolete equipment, lack of competent managerial skills and lack of funding. Corruption is one of the major challenges militating against regular power supply in Nigeria. Between 1999 and 2024, the Federal Government invested not less than N3tn in the power sector. Despite this huge amount, the power output has not surpassed 5,000 megawatts. This is as a result of corruption.
Second, the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (now Nigerian National Petroleum Company ) has spent billions of dollars over two decades on turnaround maintenance of Nigeria’s four refineries, yet none of them is working while the average cost of building a 350,000-barrel-of-petroleum-per-day refinery is about $3.5bn. Despite all the efforts being made by the Federal Government to curb the menace, it continues to thrive.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari once said: “If we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill us.” Another major challenge in the power sector is the recurrent vandalism of infrastructure across the power sector due to a lack of patriotism. In recent times, vandalism and equipment theft have been the leading causes of blackout in the country. Bandits and criminals have been found to vandalise the grid and electricity towers. The lack of political will on the part of the government is another militating factor.
For instance, the failure of the Federal Government to meet its subsidy payments obligation to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry has plunged the sector into over N3tn debt in the past couple of years. Power generation companies have raised the alarm over the deteriorating financial status of the companies following a huge N1.3tn debt from the market. In order to reduce the government’s commitment to the market, President Bola Tinubu approved the removal of electricity subsidies for nearly two million customers in Band A with an assurance of over 20 hours of power supply daily.
As regards the solutions to the power sector crisis, there is a need to break down the national grid into mini-grids to serve many areas. Any corrupt government official found guilty of embezzling public money should be jailed in accordance with the law of the land. As a matter of urgency, the Federal Ministry of Power should come up with a workable road map imbued with a timeline on how electricity generation can be improved. It also should try to explore other alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind and geothermal which are cheaper and environment-friendly.
The National Orientation Agency should try to enlighten the public on the need to protect and preserve government property. There should be heavy penalties for those found vandalising transformers and electricity towers. Finally, Nigerians should imbibe the spirit of patriotism. This is the only way the country can make progress.
•Oladipupo can be reached via oladeleoladipupo@gmail.com
