NIGERIA'S POWER CRISIS SHOULD BE RESOLVED

Nigeria's eclectic and frustrating power situation has been a much discussed subject even before Nigeria's begin of civil rule in 1999. Indeed, for over two decades, Nigerians have been grappling with a severe power crisis. When President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua got into office in 2007, he made the provision of electricity a major priority in his government's agenda. Nigerians are yet to see results.

While Nigeria has one of the worst power situations in Africa and in the world, it sells electricity to its neighbors such as Benin Republic. While these countries have steady power situations, Nigerians continually wallow in darkness. The situation in Nigeria is frustrating, and if permitted to say, 'heartbreaking'. In Nigeria, it is a known fact that it is almost impossible to have steady power for 8 straight hours in a single day. There are times where suburbs in Lagos (the commercial hub of Nigeria) go for several days without power supply. Several businesses and individuals suffer immensely as a result.

The harm caused by the lack of power in Nigeria is incalculable. The statistics are daunting. Several industrial establishments have been forced to close down due to lack of power. With these untimely closures thousands of workers are being regularly retrenched. Nigerians barely have enough electricity for domestic or commercial purposes.

Nigeria is currently Africa's largest crude oil producer, with a vast amount of wealth at its disposal. If Nigeria wanted to, it could conveniently solve its power crisis. I strongly believe that Nigeria has the resources to make its power nightmare a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the past governments, and dare I say, the current one are so engaged in diverting funds meant for power projects into other less important avenues, and apparently, in their pockets. The power situation, which should be one of the top priorities, has been neglected.

At the inception of the current civilian dispensation in the year 2000, the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo raised the hopes of the Nigerian people when he famously said: "On my honour, by the end of 2001, they (Nigerians) would begin to enjoy regular, uninterrupted power supply". Now we all know he never really meant what he said. He was merely reading from a script written by his speechwriter.

Obasanjo blabbed severally about the efforts his government was making to ensure steady power supply. He had secret plans. In a guise of working on the power crisis, he set up an illegal agency, the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), which awarded spurious contracts to close friends, allies, business partners and family members. To fund the contracts, Obasanjo drew illegally from the excess crude account of the federation to the tune of billions of dollars. His administration "spent" these monies on energy and power with no appreciable impact on Nigeria's energy and power sector.

The power contracts Obasanjo's government awarded followed a general pattern. Multi-billion naira contracts would be awarded to companies, most of the money would be paid upfront, with very little or no execution carried out, and with no efforts made to monitor and enforce execution. Most companies did little or nothing at all, and walked away with lots of money- taxpayers' money.

Reflecting on the boldness with which the contracted individuals abandoned the power projects, I have every reason to believe that they were under an agreement to share the monies with the awarding government- The Obasanjo government. The government was blessed with abundant revenue inflows, yet no significant achievement was made in terms of improving the lot of Nigerians as far as power supply was concerned. With Obasanjo's mishandling of the power sector, it is no wonder the nation has been thrown into a state of almost total power blackout. It is a condition to which they have become used to.

Today, Nigeria claims to be the 'Giant' of Africa. Smaller and less wealthy countries like Benin republic, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi have reasonably steady power supply. When it comes to electricity supply, anywhere else in the world is better than Nigeria. It's a shame.

While it may be dismissed, I could argue that Nigeria's power problem is still pending because Nigeria's own oil Oligarchs realize that if the problem is solved, they will lose lots of business from corporate organizations and individuals who spend heavily on diesel and other fuel products to power their generating sets- which is the only alternative source of power supply. While this could be a serious allegation, it must not be overlooked. Nigerians are some of the most amazing people in the world- they are also some of the cunniest. It is possible that some powers that be are ensuring that the crisis is never resolved so as to stay in business. You never know; some wealthy oil business people may be at the background, greasing the palms of the government so that this crisis is never resolved. With the way I know Nigeria, anything is possible.

Whatever the case may be, the Nigerian government needs to live up to its word, act swiftly, and provide a solution to its embarrassing power nightmare. For a country that claims to be the giant of Africa, I think the giant has suffered enough embarrassment. It cannot afford to suffer some more. The government should act now.

Mfonobong Nsehe is a Nigerian and a communications student at Daystar University, Kenya. E-mail: [email protected]