Electricity: Can President Jonathan make a difference?

Government attempts at power sector reforms have not always translated into tangible results. In 1999, when the post-military administration under the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo assumed power, there were  tears of joys from Nigerians that at least, a man who intrinsically knows how to defeat crises and is reform oriented will wage relentless efforts […]

Government attempts at power sector reforms have not always translated into tangible results. In 1999, when the post-military administration under the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo assumed power, there were  tears of joys from Nigerians that at least, a man who intrinsically knows how to defeat crises and is reform oriented will wage relentless efforts against power outages in the country. But was Obasanjo able to change the situation? No! Rather than improve, the sector cascaded further deep into crisis. Though the former president attempted a holistic sector reform leading for instance, to the privatization of the sector, evident in the change of nomenclature of the then Nigeria’s power monopolist, National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), his attempts failed to produce any tangible results; for while his two terms of four years each lasted, the country was groping around in the dark and still is in the dark and Nigerians as it were, are not happy and are daily being irritated as the situation remains the same.

Obasanjo, however, bequeathed a forlorn to his late successor, Musa Yar’adua who also could not do more than declare an implausible state of emergency in the power sector. Until his death, the situation remained the same perhaps worse than he inherited it.

As President Goodluck Jonathan settles down to business of governance, perhaps the one critical question is how he might deal with the situation. Should Nigerians, for the first time after decades of exasperation with the mess, expect any prospect for a complete turnaround of the troubled sector? Perhaps! Although he has pledged to undertake a holistic reform of the sector in deep crisis to give it a look of dynamism, by implication mitigate our suffering, he should not forget that Nigerians are used to such pledges for instance of state of emergency in the power sector, not once or twice but all too often. Each leader had the occasion to raise our hopes with affirmation of states of emergencies in the sector to nip in the bud the lingering power outages that have virtually reduced the country to a near backwater of the global economic market place. Such states of emergencies as do declared have always proved to be practical jokes or implausible offers. This is pretty exasperating even as the situation still poses a great challenge to Nigerians.

All hope is not lost, however. The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), a government energy think-tank, is set to give Nigeria a benefit of alternative source of energy. Understandably, it is working to make the country buy into Solar, Wind, Biomass, Bio-fuel and Nuclear as well as Coal as alternatives to the conventional oil based energy which includes gas and hydro. The commission’s research findings or experience, as the case may be, shows that nuclear power, for instance can supply electricity on a 24 hour basis without fluctuations. Once loaded with nuclear reactive part, here is continuous electricity supply for 7 to 10 years uninterrupted. The good news is that in 2008, the federal goven1lllent gave approval for a nuclear power programme. This idea of what looks like an innovation, was to make Nigeria a relatively energy efficient country. A more fruitful approach in this regard might be to see how to assist the commission to actualize this programme in-terms of requisite funding so that it might not go the way of others which are left unimplemented as soon as they are muted.

Meanwhile, the Commission, appearing to be true to its mandate has recommend as a gap, tile use of giant diesel generators outside al big city centres across the federation to feed into the supply of these cities in what is referred to as Emergency Energy Power Plant (EEPP). According to the Commission, EEPP with 500 to 750 mw outside the city of Lagos; Ibadan, Kano with 200mw each and Abuja and Kaduna with 150mw each can stabilize electricity supply in the country stem the tide of complaints by the general public.

If President Jonathan may want to make a difference, he should discountenance any protest by professionals against abandoning the status-quo, because few are benefiting from it, to sign up to the ECN’s recommendation for the use of Emergency Energy Power Plant as a stop gap. In countries like Cuba, Brazil, Ghana and others where the alternative has been adopted there is less and less of incidences of law shedding and are now a near total energy efficient    to drive their individual economies.

Obviously, never has the Commission, in its over two decades of existence as an agency of government, come so alive in its statutory mandate of strategic planning and co-ordination of national policies of energy than under Professor Abubakar S. Sambo. Presently, the commission’s two research centres in both Nsukka in Enugu State and Sokoto respectively, have successfully carried out research activities in renewable energy, resulting in the design and fabrication of solar water heater, solar chick, solar dryer, biogas digesters and improved wood and solid of fuel stoves.

Nevertheless, how President Jonathan handles the problem that stares us menacingly in the fact will rate him low or high. But the best way out is simply to accept the ECN’s recommendation, pass the national energy master plan into law and recommend for adequate funding of the Commission. Who knows? He could make a difference.

Mathew Dadiya wrote this piece from Abuja