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NEPA and missed targets
Public outcry over frequent and prolonged power outages that have
persisted to this day across the country did elicit official responses from the
National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). Reasons adduced revolved around low water levels at the
three hydro-power stations (at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro) and on-going
rehabilitation of Egbin Thermal Power Station, near Lagos, which have reduced
power output to about 2,000 megawatts (MW). Instructively, the current level of
power generation is about same as that in mid-1999, at the inception of the
present Administration. This suggests that nearly six years into fresh planning
for electricity infrastructure and after execution of projects worth $2.5
billion (N335 billion), according to Power and Steel Minister Liyel Imoke,
Nigeria is back to square one. It is, indeed, a sad testimony to the sense of
mission of the Obasanjo Administration!
Government’s “Power Agenda”,
unfolded in faraway New York, United States, at the “Business and Investment
Forum for Nigeria,” in September, 1999 had set out attainable targets,
time frames and strategies, that were undeniably brilliant: power outages to be
reduced by 60 per cent in six months and completely eliminated within a year.
The Minister at the time assured prospective entrepreneurs at the event that,
“all the bids for the supplies, repairs, refurbishment and construction
in respect of revamping the generating stations, transmission and distribution
of electricity as well as for rural electrification are being implemented
through the open tender process widely published in print media.” A few
weeks later, it emerged that political patronage was a key factor in contract
awards, and that, as the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) alleged
in a petition to the National Assembly, “most jobs, rehabilitation,
repairs and refurbishment… were contracted out at alarming rates.”
Target dates arrived without substantial improvement in power supply, just as
the promised transparency and the progression to privatisation had been
unrealised.
Under a fresh initiative of Government in early 2000,
NEPA had been transferred from the Power and Steel Ministry to The Presidency
and a Technical Committee headed by the present Power and Steel Minister, Mr Imoke,
appointed to take charge of its operations. President Obasanjo then assured
Nigerians that all relevant projects would be fully executed within 24 months
and that power outages would cease from December 31, 2001. That target, too,
was missed. Then a matching order to the Technical Committee to achieve the
promised output level and stability of supply by April, 2002. Like earlier
assurances, no positive result was achieved. Since then, neither Obasanjo nor
any member of his Administration has found it obligatory to make a categorical
statement on power supply - a pointer to the fact that Government’s
programme for the power sector is in a muddle. Now, over $2.5 billion has gone
down the drain and electricity supply is at its nadir!
The nation is in distress: enterprise, from giant
manufacturing organisations down to small and medium-scale businesses, is
withering and the ranks of the unemployed swelling; commerce, social services
and social life, generally, are in no better condition, just as academic endeavours
such as research and training which cannot flourish without reliable power
supply. Stakeholders outside of The Presidency-controlled NEPA and Power and
Steel Ministry have to step in with alternative ideas on the way forward. The
National Assembly could, first, clarify issues relating to the so-called Power
Sector Reform Bill and then cause The Presidency to take a firm position on the
privatisation of the unbundled 18 units of the utility company. Is it not sad
that after presiding over the squander of $2.5 billion in the name of execution
of electricity projects, the same Imoke would express (as he did at the
November 2 international
conference on “Electricity Power Sector Reforms” in Abuja) a desire
for Government to inject more
funds into NEPA “until such a time the environment is made
conducive” for private investors? A tempting conclusion is that the
aforesaid Power Sector Reform Bill, has been stalled at the National Assembly
as a ploy by The Presidency to postpone the enthronement of the “enabling
environment”.
Privatisation, it must be emphasised, is no guarantee
that a moribund investment could be effectively revitalised in no time. But it
remains the prescription for NEPA under the Public Enterprises
(Commercialisation and Privatisation) Act, 1999. It is up to the National
Assembly to critically examine all relevant issues and determine the
appropriate line of action for the nation in this regard. It is a shame that in
2004, Nigeria’s power generation capacity is as low as 2,000 MW (compare
South Africa’s 44,000 MW) and that industrial output and development
could, in consequence, be so fatally hamstrung. Stakeholders must look at
Nigeria’s proven gas reserves of over 160 trillion standard cubic feet
- South Africa is not so blessed in that regard - as well as coal
reserves. The present regime has
long run out of ideas but has refused to admit this, and continues to waste
resources on unviable options.
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