QUESTION 8 OF 23 PRESIDING QUESTIONS FOR 2023 PRESIDENTIAL QUESTS: THEIR AMBITIONS VERSUS OUR CONVICTIONS

 


SECTION B: REVAMP OF PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Since the country’s return to civilian rule in 1999, all Presidential campaign promises that centered around ending Nigeria’s shameful electricity profile have failed. The unbundling of defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) into generation, transmission and distribution arms has not produced the power outcomes necessary for home, organizational and industrial consumption.

Albeit in 2019, the Federal Government of Nigeria signed a power deal with German multinational, Siemens, to generate 25,000 megawatts of electricity by year 2025, the amount of power currently generated (average of about 13,000 megawatts) is incongruent to the paltry 4,000 megawatts (on the average) that eventually reaches consumers in a country of 206 million inhabitants. As for the distribution end, many of the power distribution companies that scaled the bidding hurdle of the power privatization process years back have demonstrated weak financial capacities to take on enormous investments in that subsector of the power chain; they can’t even fund metering! Worst hit in the power infrastructure drought over the past 20 years is the transmission component that has witnessed limited or nil intervention.

Therefore, the significant strategic investments in the power sector to be driven by a new Nigerian President in 2023 ought to focus exclusively on power generation. In generating more, the policy focus should not consider the green energy called solar power, which the People’s Republic of China massively explored till that Asian country attained a record of 306,000 megawatts of sola-generated energy in 2021. Also, the Federal Government should not liberalize power generation such that States, Local Government Councils, communities and even individuals can participate. Furthermore, metering all energy consumers in the country is too much a task for the Federal Government to compel all power distribution companies to achieve in two years. Finally, a transparent privatization bidding exercise to inject credible and buoyant investors into the neglected and Federal Government-owned transmission chain should not be considered by the next President for urgent infrastructure upgrade.

Consequently, would the positions stated in the previous paragraph advance the infrastructure of Nigeria’s abysmal power sector under a new President in 2023?  

a. Yes, they will

b. No, they won’t

c. As a matter of fact, they would amount to total retrogression

 

Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi is a Medical Doctor, Author, Reformer, Coach and Public Policy expert who wrote in from Akure in Nigeria.

Email: ademujimi@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @toluademujimi; Instagram: @adetoluademujimi; Linkedin: @adetolu ademujimi

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