An X-ray of power sector under Buhari’s 8-year leadership
An X-ray of power sector under Buhari’s 8-year leadership
By Constance Athekame, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Reliable power supply is important is in virtually every aspect of the life of any nation. A reliable power stimulates wealth creation, it creates employment, it is important in health care delivery, it is vital for efficiency in the aviation and transport industry.
Without regular power supply the entertainment and tourism industry will be comatose. Small, medium and large-scale businesses thrive under steady power supply. The list is endless.
It is therefore no surprise that world over, governments pay special attention to efficient power generation and distribution.
In Nigeria, various governments have invested huge sums of money in their efforts to revamp the fortunes of the nation’s power sector which has failed to maintain equilibrium between demand and supply.
Energy experts say deficit of infrastructure across the value chain in the power sector had remained a challenge to meeting the nation’s power needs.
As President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure ends after the maximum eight years in office the question is: how did the sector fare under his administration?
Nigerians also ask: where there improvements on what his administration met on ground? Are there lessons the incoming government will learn from Buhari’s experience in the sector?
The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, in a speech to mark the end of his tenure said that a lot of interventions went into the power sector under Buhari’s administration.
Aliyu said that one of such intervention to include the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant in Niger state which added 700 Mega Watts (MW) to the National Grid to boost electricity.
The minister also said the Kashimbila Hydroelectric Power Project which is a joint project with the Ministry of Water Resources had been completed.
According to him, the phase 1 of the project, which is the line taking electricity to Yandev in Benue over 240 kilometers, had been completed and has been inaugurated.
Speaking on the Siemens Project, Aliyu said that the ministry had installed transformers in Abuja, Ajah, Lagos adding that 10 massive mobile substation had been cleared.
The deal signed in February 2020 aims to not only enhance the distribution network but also increase generation capacity
Aliyu also said that the ministry of power had also presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) a contract for over 13, 000kilometers distribution line.
Under Buhari’s administration, saw the completion of the first phase (Phase zero) of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) flagged off by the Federal Government on October 30, 2020.
The key objectives of the NMMP include, increase Nigeria’s metering rate, and elimination of arbitrary estimated billing.
It is also aimed at strengthening the meter value chain by increasing local manufacturing, assembly and deployment capacity.
It also seeks to improve network monitoring capability and availability of data for market administration and investment decision making.
Also under the administration of Buhari, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) carried a lot of projects to ensure that those in the rural area have access to electricity through the renewable energy.
The Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is the implementing agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria tasked with electrification of rural and un-served communities.
Under Buhari’s administration, the REA achieved one million solar home systems connections between 2019 and 2022.
According to the agency, this was made possible through the Standalone Solar Home Systems (SHS) component.
Data from the REA showed that the agency has electrified 328,765 female-headed households, and also electrified 1,206 female-headed micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
On transmission, the administration under the period under review did a lot to improve the network.
Speaking on some of the achievements in the transmission sector, Mr Sule Abudulaziz Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), listed some of administration’s achievement to include completion of some abandoned on-going projects such as; Gagarawa 2X60MVA, 132/33kV Substation in Jigawa.
Others he said are 1X100MVA Transformer at Ogba TS, Lagos State; Installation and inauguration of 132/33KV 60MVA Transformer at Rumuosi T/S in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and many more.
In spite of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to increase electricity supply many Nigerians still go to sleep in darkness while entrepreneurs spend huge amounts of money to generate their own electricity to run their businesses even as Nigerians complain of high electricity bills.
Experts say Nigeria’s electricity generation installed capacity is 16,348MW. Unfortunately in reality it is far from hitting that target.
“On the 28th of February, 2021, the country recorded the highest ever dispatch power of 5,615.40MW’’, says an energypedia report.
Energypedia is a wiki platform for collaborative knowledge exchange on renewable energy, energy access, and energy efficiency topics in developing countries.
Critics say the attempt by the Federal government to privatise the sector has not yielded expected dividends.
One of them is electricity workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).
The electricity workers had demanded the outgoing administration to reverse the privatisation policy at a news conference in Ibadan in 2022.
“Our opposition to the privatisation policy was informed by our understanding and conviction that privatisation will always seek to protect and defend the profit interest of the business owners.
“This will be against the general interest of the people for affordable and regular electricity’’, said Assistant General Secretary, Western Zone of NUEE, Comrade Modupeoluwa Akinola.
One of the harshest criticisms came from human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN)
“I have reason now to believe that our leaders use epileptic power supply as an instrument of oppression, to frustrate Nigerians, to halt their development initiatives, to collapse their industries and investments.
“This is to the extent that they would have no other alternative than to surrender to the programmes and policies of the ruling government”, said the lawyer in a statement entitled ‘“Government in power without powe’.
However given the level of damage done to the electricity sector by previous administrations, some stakeholder say it would be unfair to say that the Buhari administration has not done enough.
“The entire sector is broken. The entire sector is broken, the tariff is an issue, the way the privatisation was done is an issue to many. So there are many issues.
“The problems in electricity are many”, said outgoing Kaduna State governor, Mr Nasir El-Rufai, after a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
He said solving the problem in the sector goes beyond Buhari but includes `asking honest questions’such as tarrif regime, core invesstors and providing answers to them. (NANFeatures)
**If used please credit the writer and News Agency of Nigeria.