If there is one national headache that Nigerians unanimously yearn for a cure, it is sure the poor state of the power sector. There is unanimity of opinion in Nigeria that the country cannot develop or witness any significant growth without proportional growth in the power sector.
The dire condition of the sector explains the clamour for the declaration of state of emergency in the sector. According to World Bank estimates of 2010, Nigeria ranks among the 10 countries with the lowest kilowatt consumption per capita. Nigeria has 136kw per capita and the countries that rank below Nigeria are Haiti 24kw, Ethiopia 54kw, Eritrea 52kw, Congo Democratic Republic 95kw, Nepal 93kw, Tanzania 78kw, Myanmar 131kw and only about 50.6% of Nigerians have access to electricity as compared to Ghana’s 60.5%, Pakistan’s 62.4% and Libya’s 99.8%.
Nigeria’s power sector has been left to stagnate and degenerate into such decadence that many lofty efforts made since 1999 seem to be a drop of water in the ocean. The requisite investment in the sector was criminally abandoned and there was no conscious plan to take a second look at the sector so as to arrest the decadence.
Based on the forgoing therefore, when the present administration came with the desire to reform the power sector, Nigerians heaved a sigh of ecstatic relief. The reforms have seen the lunching of the Power Sector Road Map, the unbundling of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, settlement of outstanding arrears of staff of PHCN and recently the sale of electricity distribution companies, popularly called DISCOS.
The power sector privatisation re-commenced in earnest in August 2010, following the unveiling of a detailed roadmap for the power sector reform by President Goodluck Jonathan. The roadmap had stipulated that only 11 distribution companies and six generation companies would be fully privatised, while the ownership of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) would be retained by the government but with private sector management, as articulated in the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005.
All these noble and notable efforts geared towards reviving and revamping the sector seems to have been yielding the needed dividends, though some may argue in trickles. The minister in charge of power, Professor Chinedu Nebo said very recently that by the middle of June this year, the country would migrate from the present 4000 plus megawatts to 6000 megawatts and likely to hit 10,000 by the end of the year.
This sounds like good music to the ears of desperate Nigerians. But, stakeholders in the sector have warned that before these dreams could be turned into realities, gas supplies to the power plants will have to significantly improve and the pipelines more secured to ensure uninterrupted gas supply.
Also some of the archaic laws hamstringing some states from generating and distributing within the confines of their states, such legislations that compel states to dump their generation into the national pool should be reviewed so as to encourage more states’ participation in power generation and distribution. This will mean removing power from the exclusive list.
With the improvements already witnessed in the sector, it is now sure that the only way to go is the way of the reform, if the sector has to embrace the much needed improvement. The impact of a reformed power sector will be there for all to see as there is going to be more private players in the sector who are going to see the business of power generation and distribution as a serious one and this will in turn result in significantly improved mega wattage.
At this desperate state of the sector and given the genuine efforts of this administration in righting the criminal wrongs of the past decades, supporting these efforts is the only right thing to do. A reformed power sector will not only jumpstart the economy, it will set it on the desired path of perpetual growth. It will help release and unleash the abundant potentials that abound in the country. All hands must be on deck.