By Desmond Orjiakor
Every well-informed Nigerian living in the country since the second coming of the military in December 1983 knows that very little investment was made in the power sector until the Olusegun Obasanjo administration came on board on May 29, 1999. For many, this is a misconception. Another misconception was the one peddled by the late political orator and former minister of power, and later Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, that the sector could be fixed within six months. Those two misconceptions drove the thinking in the power sector. There were also very fundamental structural problems. Public utilities were run as a monopoly. Not just a monopoly, but also very top heavy and centralized in its administration, in the case of the power sector. And so, there were a number of things that had to be done.
*Obasanjo
There were the reforms, for instance, the 2005 Act, which provides for the unbundling of the utility into different entities which happened during the Obasanjo administration when Senator Liyel Imoke was minister. I think, Imoke worked closely with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to make sure that the law was passed. In fact, the Power Reform Act was one of the most difficult laws to be passed in the National Assembly for obvious reasons. But it was passed, and that was the beginning of the reforms in earnest. With the passage of the law, Nigerians started seeing the unbundling of the utilities into smaller entities and this, in turn, saw them independently managed and being run more like business entities. This, of course, was a step in the right direction heading towards ultimately what we now see as the privatization of these utilities.
All the structural amendments that needed to happen, and all started during the Obasanjo administration. There was an attempt to re-bundle the utilities during the Umaru Musa Yar'Adua administration. This delayed for over two years the reforms and progress that had been made. Yet, the fact that the Goodluck Jonathan administration came back to that same blueprint of the Obasanjo era has led to some of the improvements we see in the sector today. We now see that the Federal Government budget for the power sector was very huge. Now, with the private sector buying in and taking some ownership through the privatization process, we are now seeing the Federal Government spending less and the private sector taking more responsibilities for investment in power supply.
Showing posts with label Electricity Supply in Nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electricity Supply in Nigeria. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Meeting The Challenge Of Human Capital Development In The New Nigerian Power Industry (1)
By Idowu Oyebanjo
One of
the myriads of problems bedevilling the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry is
the dearth of knowledge of Power Systems in Nigeria and unfortunately worldwide.
Having an efficient and reliable Power System requires dedication and hard
work. To this end, there must be a clear focus on recruiting, training, and
keeping the workforce for today and tomorrow. There is also the risk that
developed countries will poach our Engineers once they have been trained,
attracting them to say the least, with offers of citizenship in "greener
pastures". Hence, a well articulated and constructive approach is required
to ensure we meet this challenge and keep a sufficient level of expertise
adequate for the survival of the Power Industry in Nigeria ! How can this be done?
*Buhari
The
foremost requirement is a regulation backed by law to ensure that various
enablers are in place to support the deliberate development and optimal
utilization of Nigerian human resources for the provision of electricity services in the Power Industry.
The emphasis should be on ensuring the active participation and growth of the
Nigerian Industry and citizenry in the various services and activities that
will be witnessed as Nigeria
rebuilds her Power Network and Infrastructure. I say active here because lazy,
selfish and myopic investors will partner technical companies from the
developed economies who, for many good reasons, will prefer to carry out the
actual design, fabrication, manufacturing and testing of equipment from their
overseas offices and locations. This will create jobs and opportunities
overseas and add little to our subject matter. With foot on the ground,
business economics will prevail and within a reasonable period of time, so many
companies will shift base to Nigeria
to carry out these activities and more. Of course some balance is required here
as the intention is not to stifle the development of the Power Industry and
this is why those who understand the business of Electricity Generation,
Transmission, Distribution and Supply are required to manage the process. In
addition, there is need to track, monitor, review and measure the development
of this objective at every stage. Statistical methods showing status quo ante
and progress in the many areas is a must.
In view
of the dearth of Knowledge of Power Systems in-country, the new owners of the
Nigerian Power Assets, their technical consultants and Nigerian Professionals
home and abroad should be asked to submit a list of the activities that they
believe would be carried out in the short and long-term in the Power Industry.
They should equally state those activities they would be more likely to provide
services for pre-qualification and assessment of their capabilities or otherwise,
to acceptable international standards. This should form a database akin to the
Joint Qualification System (JQS) in use in the Oil and Gas Industry. The
Nigerian Content Division of NNPC could be approached for help in this area.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Electricity Crisis In Nigeria: Can Buhari Break The Jinx?
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
If former President Goodluck
Jonathan had succeeded in solving the ever-worsening electricity crisis in Nigeria , he would have left office last May as
one of Nigeria ’s greatest leaders. And that is, assuming that
singular feat would not have been able to reelect him by deflating the strong,
vicious and clearly unedifying campaign bolstered by unrealistic promises
massively deployed against him by the opposition.
*Jonathan and Buhari
Granted, the Olusegun Obasanjo
regime, allegedly, squandered some $16 billion to plunge the country deeper
into darkness, but Jonathan is no Obasanjo, and I doubt if his ambition was to
come into office to reenact the Obasanjo disaster. Jonathan’s failure,
therefore, to realize the strategic role of electricity in the life of modern
man and demonstrate that five years was enough for him to write his name in
gold by lighting up the country is the key reason, I think, he left office with
his head bowed, despite his very noble act of conceding defeat to President
Muhammadu Buhari, thus aborting the desperation of those waiting in the wings
to exploit the situation to unleash terrible mayhem in the country and waste
drums of innocent blood.
The
problem, I think is that, President Jonathan really stretched political naivety
far beyond its malleable limit when he failed to realise that the regime of
darkness and unspeakable extortion unleashed on Nigerians by the private
operators currently generating and distributing electricity in Nigeria was
gradually exerting some influence on the way Nigerians perceived his
government. Those companies appeared to have conspired to work extremely hard
to further compound his already growing image problems and deepen grave
disaffection against him among the populace. And no one should have realized it
better than the former president that such a situation was too harmful to be
allowed to endure, especially, on the eve of a very bitterly contested
election. But Jonathan and his party were insufferably complacent and took
several things for granted until a devastating defeat was served him like an
unexpected, unappetizing breakfast.
It would seem
that he realized only too late in the day (assuming he ever did) that he was facing a peculiar kind
of opposition: one which, though, pitiably lacking in brighter ideas or better
preparation for governance (as Nigerians are already witnessing), appeared more
adept in chronicling and magnifying the failings of his government. And so, it
was easy for them to promise largely unrealistic alternatives and got sizable
number of people to buy into their grand illusion that the only solution to Nigeria ’s
many problems was just the exit of Jonathan.
Friday, December 12, 2014
The Gospel According To St. Obasanjo (1)
By Dan Amor
For all it may be worth, the last tirade against President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is certainly one of the salvos intended to weaken the support base of the President as his enemies led by Obasanjo plan to hit him below the belt. But the reactions of Nigerians of varied backgrounds to Obasanjo's old tricks show that Nigerians are no fools. The people's condemnation of Obasanjo's arrant hypocrisy has been overwhelming. The first reaction came from no less a personality than the traditional ruler ofLagos , His Majesty Oba
Rilwan Akiolu, who said that Obasanjo's government was the most corrupt
in the history of Nigeria .
The respected monarch cannot be more correct. Amidst Obasanjo's catalogue of
anti-corruption verbal interventions, the question that now begs for an urgent
answer is: is Obasanjo among the Saints?
For all it may be worth, the last tirade against President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is certainly one of the salvos intended to weaken the support base of the President as his enemies led by Obasanjo plan to hit him below the belt. But the reactions of Nigerians of varied backgrounds to Obasanjo's old tricks show that Nigerians are no fools. The people's condemnation of Obasanjo's arrant hypocrisy has been overwhelming. The first reaction came from no less a personality than the traditional ruler of
*Obasanjo
Due largely to the lamentable short memory of homosepiens, it seems as though we have forgotten so soon about the person of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his recent past. But the poor boy from
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