Living by faith

I would have gone straight to the business of the day. But permit me to briefly narrate a true story that will give you an insight into the motivation behind this piece. Sometime in 2012, I met a gentleman on board a flight from Lagos to Benin. The gentleman hails from Delta State, residing at that time in Washington DC, USA. According to him, he is an alumnus of the famous Hussey College, Warri, Delta State, with two PhDs- one in computer engineering and other in systems engineering management.

As we exchanged pleasantries, the gentleman told me “he travelled out of Nigeria more than 25 years ago to the USA in search of greener pastures. After about 10 minutes of silence and looking uneasy he murmured saying “I now know why Nigerians have to live by faith.”

I curiously asked him why he made such remarks. Narrating his ordeal, he told me about power failure at the local airport on this fateful day. In his words: “I would have travelled in the morning but was unable to do so because of power failure at the airport.” “As the airline staff made the first boarding announcement of the flight to Benin at about 0600 hours,” he said,“suddenly the entire airport was in darkness as a result of power failure. “Come and see confusion and pandemonium,” he said, with all seriousness.

According to him, “electricity was not restored until about 0610” on that fateful day. Unable to cope with the chaos, “I lost my wallet containing valuables but thank God I had my boarding pass with me.”He had to call his wife in Washington DC immediately on mobile phone, told her all that happened to him, and concluded by saying “I now know why Nigerians have to live by faith.” Why did he say so, I asked? “It is because in the USA,” he said,“power supply is taken for granted.” “In Nigeria, citizens have to pray to almighty God for provision of basic amenities.”

I expressed deep concern and wanted to know inquisitively why he was in Nigeria. It was the image making propaganda of Nigeria’s immediate past government, he said, that brought him back to his country after 25years. He came to see if truly his beloved country has been transformed in line with the transformation agenda of the immediate past government. The rest is now history but I wish the gentleman had relocated back to Nigeria to join other Nigerians to live by faith!

Now to the main issue. I am compelled to write on power failure considering recent happenings in the sector. If policy makers do not detach themselves from sentiments and be honest, the problem associated with incessant power failure in the country may not be solved in a very long time. Without mincing words, misology is often the norm in Nigeria when you contribute to intellectual discourse on any issue of national interest.

In Nigeria, knowledge is usually considered a function of age, while position in the society is taken to have direct correlation with wealth rather than expertise. Even when there is expertise, a few have deliberately allowed greed to becloud their sense of judgment and comprehension of issues.Let me stress respectfully that, it will be the eighth wonder of the world if Nigeria is industrialized and competitive with epileptic power supply.

Let it be equally noted that the new government needs to look at the power sector holistically. This is because those governments before the PMB’s administration have not “crossed the Rubicon” in power supply generation, distribution and transmission. But the new government must be aware that electricity generation is of interest to all Nigerians in pursuit of their business endeavors.

It is well known and documented that the demands of any given society contribute to the growth and direction of development. The need for constant electricity supply is rooted in the desire to improve production capacity of firms in Nigeria. Otherwise, Nigerian firms will be spectators in a global competitive landscape. To avoid this, all entrepreneurs- small, medium and large are interested in that sector of the economy.

Following the completion of Kainji Dam in 1960, available data shows that the nation’s generating capacity was 73 MW, while the capacity rose to 1740 MW in 1980. As scholars and policy analysts were analyzing this seemingly impressive growth, Nigeria’s Fourth National Development Plan: 1981 – 1985: reflects“a growth rate of electricity generating capacity of about 7.7 percent per annum; while the consumption rate was over 20 percent per annum in the 1970s.” With this revelation, some experts knew it was just a matter of time before power failure would become a way of life in Nigeria.

In 1999, the nation’s generating capacity was estimated to be 1750MW. On 14 September 2014, it was reported that 66 power generating units were functioning, while 7 plants were not operational. At this time, N2.74 trillion has been invested by the Federal Government while 93 million Nigerians lack electricity supply.

In 2015, it was estimated that about 65 percent of consumers have no meters. Considering, our current level of development in Nigeria, what is the rate of consumption of electricity by about 180 million people in the year 2016? What is the cost of generating one Watt of electricity and how many consumers have been issued meters? If the federal government can provide answers to these questions, it will help in planning and also, in convincing labor and other Nigerians that there is need for increase in tariff.

As I write this piece, it was reported by the Leadership newspaper of 4 February 2016 that “power supply hit all-time high of 5074.7 MW.” While the minister of power, works and housing, Babande Fashola expressed optimism that “given various plans undertaken by the present administration in the power sector, power generation will increase by 2000MW in the last quarter of 2016.”If this was achieved, that means in 56 years, Nigeria would have been able to supply barely 7000 MW of electricity to consumers. Why is this so when the country’s peak power demand is still officially put at 12,800 MW? The reasons are numerous, diverse and complex. (To be continued).

MA Johnson