Celebrating Nigeria at 50

                               

As Nigeria rolls out the drums in celebration of 50 years of attaining political independence, it is pertinent to note that that most Nigerians will bask in the euphoria of the momentous occasion using lit candles or electricity generated by their privately owned inverters and generators.
50 years after supposedly seeing the light of self-rule, Nigerians are still literally living in the dark. Electricity supply is still a major challenge. The cost of energy is driving up the cost of production in an impoverished economy The manufacturing sector has gone downhill. Companies are closing shops and some are relocating to other African countries owing to inefficient power generation.

President Goodluck Jonathan has however come up with an impressive roadmap towards resolving power outages.  It looks fantastic on paper with radical reforms in electricity generation, transmission and distribution. It is a commendable initiative and timely too, as it boosts his presidential aspirations, especially with the party primaries and presidential elections just around the corner. The President should however forgive my cynicism when I say that we have been down this road before – and nothing came out of it.

Chief James Ajibola Ige (may his soul rest in peace), then Minister of Mines and Power (1999-2000) promised Nigerians, on assumption of office, with set targets of 6-12 months and 24-months periods, to drastically reduce and eventually eradicate power outages in December 2007. He had immediate plans to revamp the power sector. That was in 1999. The darkness and epileptic power fits still traumatize us 11 years after.

Controversy still rages over how much exactly was spent by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration on the power sector and on the auspices of National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) during his eight-year tenure. Figures between $10bn and $16bn have been speculated. He also failed to deliver on his pledge to raise power generation to 10,000MW by the end of 2007. Members of the power sector probe panel set up by the National Assembly to ascertain the true figures and the alleged profligacy and lack of due process that trailed the power project, are now being probed themselves for alleged fraud during the probe. A case of the hunter being hunted. Whatever amount that was spent eventually, it was evidently money down the drain – some allege money down the drain of private pockets.

A major plank of President Umaru Yar’adua’s presidential campaign was the  unequivocal promise to declare a state of emergency in the power sector. He also promised to boost electricity supply from 3,000 MW to 10,000 MW in December 2008, 30,000 MW in 2010 and 50,000 MW in 2015. After realizing the folly of these promises, Nigerians were then promised 6,000 MW, which never happened.

The National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) mutated and became the sinister behemoth called the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), ostensibly to serve us better. I imagined that the name change was a sign that the good times had finally arrived. The name changed but the services became even more deplorable. Nothing worth writing home about (or writing anywhere else for that matter) came of out this change in nomenclature.

These are the reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan  must not fail this time around. He must be totally committed to this project even if it is the only footprint of his administration. Posterity will speak well of him if he delivers where others have failed woefully. He must give teeth to the transparent and immediate implementation of the roadmap. He should ensure that square pegs are placed in square holes. We cannot speak of Vision 20-20-20 or achieving the Millennium Developmental Goals without sorting out the issues of Nigeria's epileptic power sector. It is key to our economic transformation. Except we delude ourselves.

The city of New York uses up as much electricity as most of Africa. Exclude South Africa, and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa uses only about the same amount of electricity as New York. That’s the finding of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a report released last week on international access to power. The 19.5 million inhabitants of New York use roughly the same quantity of electricity, 40TWh in a year as the 791 million people of sub-Saharan Africa said the IEA.

In the index, South Africa ranks 10th, below Libya, Iran, Lebanon and Algeria. All other sub-Saharan countries are in the bottom half of the index. That sadly is where our dear country Nigeria finds herself. Gabon ranks second in sub-Saharan Africa, behind South Africa but 23 places lower.

It is my earnest prayer that the next 50 years we will see us experience the Nigeria of our dreams with stable power supply and political environment, sound macroeconomic policies, a competitive and vibrant private sector and our emergence as the true giant of Africa in most aspects of life.