Power-supply-the-one-thing-president-muhammadu-buhari-should-address-head-on-within-the-next-four-years-for-nigerias-economic-transformation

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI
 

Engr. Louis Edozien (Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Works & Housing)
 
POWER SUPPLY - THE ONE THING PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI SHOULD ADDRESS HEAD-ON WITHIN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS FOR NIGERIA'S ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
We have reiterated times without number that no community, state or nation across the globe that have attained any significant measure of development, which have greatly improved the Standard of living of their citizenries, without having "steady and reliable" power supply. NO ECONOMY CAN GROW WITHOUT SUSTAINABLE AND RELIABLE POWER SUPPLY. There cannot be any meaningful investment in any sector of Nigeria without reliable power supply. In fact, modern societies, as a result of population growth, require much energy/power supply to make good transition out of poverty, both for economic and social development. With this understanding, it is therefore imperative for the recently sworn-in President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term, to realize that there is no matter the economic policies, government renewed efforts or whatever intentions they have for the country in the next four years, Nigeria and its citizenry will not make any significant headway/progress/development, if the nation's power supply does not significantly improve and addressed.
This is the basic undeniable fact. The sad part is those that are close to Mr. President, especially in the last four years, have not been telling him the truth about the power situation in the country and how the situation has gone from bad to worse, particularly in the area of Power Distribution. The country's power distribution infrastructure is in total mess, that it will only take a Government with the WILL and determination to address it head-on. While we are aware that Power Generation and Transmission in the country still needs to be improved upon, however, it is imperative to note that the Power Distribution aspect is where the major problems are. And the Power Distribution Companies (DISCOS) are not helping matters with their gross incompetence, lack of capacity, capability and the wherewithal to address the many issues in that sector of power supply. The most annoying aspect about all of this is the fact that Nigeria is blessed beyond measure with the natural resources and wherewithal to transform the nation's power sector which has been “generator-driven” for years, into what it ought to be. Even when suggestions are brought forward by relevant stakeholders and concerned Nigerians, on ways to address the nation's power supply problem, our Nigerian Government Officials concerned have developed the habit of playing deaf ears, and not telling Mr. President the basic truth about the worsening power supply situation in the country.
Some weeks ago, in a well-circulated online video, Mr. Aron Emmanuel IB, suggested a way forward to address the nation's power supply. He noted that, "A truck manufactured by a Company called General Electrics (GE), can address Nigeria's power sector problems. The truck is a mobile electricity/turbine truck. It is a truck that moves, and can supply electricity by moving to the location where electricity is needed. The smallest of the truck supplies 32 Megawatt (MW) of electricity - that is huge electricity. If you put 10 of these trucks together, you are talking about 320 MW of electricity which is enough to supply 24 hours/7-days a week (24/7) of electricity to a State like Edo State. The truck has a gas turbine which can generate electricity without stopping. It is the same gas that we have all over Nigeria. This truck/turbine machine can be delivered by GE in 2 months. Not only that, these turbines after GE has delivered them, they can be made operational between 11 to 12 days in any location they are brought to in Nigeria. So, the question is, how do we get gas to these turbines? The answer is simply, you set two or three trucks that carry gas and make them run to the gas depot, to get gas, they can go and come back. You have big tanks in these turbines that can be filled with gas to keep the turbine running 24/7."
While this is a good suggestion, it however failed to consider the enormous “power distribution infrastructure problem”        in the country. According to another concerned Nigerian, Mr. Wilson Egufe Yafugbohi, he noted that, "Good, but short of addressing the other basic issues; sustainability and distribution. You don't expect GE to just come, set up in one or two months and bang, there is light everywhere. They would need time to address the challenge of sagged transformers running load shedding on daily basis. They need to clear the mess of dangerously scattered surface wires all over the place. GE, before switching on its mobile turbine needs to mutually agree with potential consumers on affordable metering system that erases crazy bills. There has to be put in place, clear law for consequence management of those who bypass meters or reconnect themselves after being disconnected. My younger nephew who lives in Ivory Coast told me that a resident cannot on his own, reconnect himself or tamper with electricity facility without contacting the relevant service provider. Even public tap. He goes to jail. So, we need to deal with these myriads of issues to make the case of mobile turbines work successfully”.
"Also, you need a new legislation to ensure that current laws don’t force relevant authorities to hook the turbine to the national grid for other people to use. Am no rubbishing the mobile turbine approach. It is very good as explained, but there’s a lot of work needed to prepare our terrain to receive it. In Nigeria, generation is the easier issue. Distribution and billing are the bigger issues. Are we aware that the little we generate we don't totally utilize, and we even export to neighboring nations? That's because distribution is in mess. How many new transformers do we have in this country? As in "new". They are all refurbished. If we bring the GE turbines to Jeremi (Ughievwen Kingdom) in Ughelli South LGA of Delta State for instance, are we going to hook it on the rough lines on ground? We would need a whole new lining, decent ones to avoid regular breakdown of distribution facilities".
The above observations clearly justify the fact that our major problem in power supply in this country, is in the area of distribution. And the DISCOS, particularly the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) that overs Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti, and has 16 business districts in all, have demonstrated not to have the capacity, expertise, wherewithal and capability to address the existing infrastructure problems in power distribution, and be able to effectively distribute power supply to its consumers in the various States across the country. We have reiterated the need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to sack all the DISCOS in the country and bring in Nigerian experts from other parts of the world in the power sector that have succeeded in addressing the power problems in other countries like Nigeria.
These DISCOS do not have the capacity and expertise to address the power distribution infrastructure problems in the country. All they are interested in is to sort of avenues to collect/milk money from the Nigerian populace. For example, a Community in Delta State, Okuokoko in Okpe LGA of the State, was said to have recently made efforts to address the power problems in their community. And they had to pay a whopping ₦1million Naira, which each compound in the community contributed ₦150,000, to the BEDC, before the community was hooked-up to a 33Kv line. The Community also bought all the materials, transformers and electric poles and even the landlords had to engage a Contractor to install the electric poles, draw the lines and carry out all the work required to achieve the said hook-up. The said Community also gave BEDC another substantial fee before they were hooked-up on the said transformer for the 33Kv line. At the end of the day, the power supply situation in the Community became worse, more than it was when the Community was under the 11Kv line. This is just one, out of the many examples of the sort of anomaly we see with the BEDC, where the consumers are the ones made to practically do what they are supposed to do as a supposed power distribution company.
The importance of power generation cannot be over emphasized for any modern society to thrive economically. For when there is more power, there will be more employment opportunities, income, high life expectancy, and better conditions/quality of life. Power generation is like the engine, the heart beat for industrial growth and the key for enhanced economic activities of any nation. We cannot move forward or do anything without constant uninterrupted power supply. For instance, the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) cannot survive without steady power supply. To encourage the SMEs, there is need for the government to provide the necessary infrastructure, and no economy can grow without the SMEs. This sector provides a greater number of employments in any economy, and that includes Nigeria. There are millions of Commercial Enterprises operating in the country and this includes: Barber Shops, Hair Dressing Salons, Boutiques, Block molding factories, Recording Studios, Dry Cleaning Services, Night Clubs, Casinos, Welders (iron fabricators), Restaurants, Corporate offices, etc, all of which, are utilizing an average of eight litres of petrol per day on different capacity of generator sets. This translates to millions of' litres of petrol per day, billions of litres of petrol per month and per annum. And with the fuel price of ₦143 - ₦145, we can imagine how much we spend as a nation on this area. This does not include the cost of oil change, spare parts and general maintenance of the generator sets.
The amount of money people spends daily in fueling and maintaining their generators cannot be overlooked. Nobody will be happy to pay electricity bills to DISCOS in the current power supply situation in the country, especially with the increase in tariff for power supply. We therefore urge that the issues raised here should be given the adequate attention it deserves. IF THE POWER DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM IS THE ONLY PROBLEM THE PRESIDENT BUHARI GOVERNMENT CAN HOLISTICALLY ADDRESS WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, HIS NAME WILL BE WRITTEN IN GOLD IN THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY, AND NIGERIANS WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM AND BE GRATEFUL FOR IT.
 
 
Zik Gbemre.
 
 

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