Engagingly cerebral, the deliberately understated helmsman of Nigeria’s beleaguered power sector shows a rare intellectual honesty as he navigates the thirst for power supply through stormy waters. Intrigued the TheNiche on Sunday observe Prof. Chinedu Ositadinma Nebo ……
At first glance, Nigeria’s power czar, Professor Chinedu Ositadinma Nebo comes across as an organisation man. He is very measured and fastidious as he pays attention to often times, very tricky details. He very sensibly avoids banana peels. Very sensibly so, since Nigeria’s power sector ministry has been an elephantine graveyard of reputations. The battered reputations of those who had hitherto strewn the power sector path, represents a weary cautionary tale. The ministry is certainly not for the faint-hearted.
Professor Nebo keeps his reputation intact by confronting a stark reality of dissatisfied consumers and national disappointed expectations. Nevertheless the one time Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka remains unfazed. A peep into his professional background reveals not just a stoic determination but the willingness to swim against the tide. The contrarian in Nebo has often times come up to the fore. Former colleagues at the UNN still speak admiringly of his (against the norm) refusal to countenance the specter of ‘abandoned projects’, that peculiarly Nigerian phenomenon.
During an exemplary tenure in office, he as VC completed projects such as the magnificent University Library, some of which had gone into slumber decades before his assumption of office. Not for him the characteristic vain gloriousness of just concentrating on his own ‘legacy’ projects. In view of our contemporary history this is laudable, not just so, for all of our sake his attitude is worthy of emulation.
As the Minister of Power, the Nebo continues to think outside of the box. This to state the obvious, is essentially with the nation at a critical juncture in the development process. Nebo was appointed Minister of Power on February, 4 2013. Prior to the appointment, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (February 2011 – February 2013). Before that appointment he had been a mould-breaking Deputy Vice-Chancellor in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology from January 2000 to January 2004.
His intellectual preparation for the job is awesome. He is a graduate of the venerable South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where he received a First Class Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Mining Engineering. He also has a Masters of Science Degree in Metallurgical Engineering and a Doctorate in Materials Engineering and Science. He never ceases to intrigue. A background and immersion in the ‘hard’ sciences is seamlessly combined with a deep and abiding religious tendency. He serves as Archdeacon in the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Diocese of Nike. Perhaps Nebo is seeking that ‘light that surprises the Christian’ (the pun here is irresistible).
It is his abiding faith that perhaps makes him to believe that it is morally contradictory or is it untenable for the Minister of Power to have a generator in his house? Much as this might sound like a sound bite, he does not indulge in that sort of self-serving provicality. He is deep, he thinks it out and it shows.
He does not use the worn out cliches and shibboleths which is the meat to the grind of our political establishment. For example, in the critical area of capital as the engine room to pilot the privatised power sector he is aware that there is a problem. The structure of our banking system does not provide the mechanism for the long-term funds at low interest rates that the sector vitally needs to grow. He obviously supports long-term interventionist funds as well as a myriad of other options. Nigeria does not unfortunately have the long-term capital provider such as Brazil’s much acclaimed BNDES which it so obviously needs. Government intervention and the inducement of international capital into the markets is therefore already half solved with the minister already setting the template for the infusion of much needed long-term capital.
The ever thoughtful Nebo is also acutely aware of the pivotal issue of gas supply. For the first time there is now a properly thought out gas strategy. Hitherto, the cart has been put before the horse. Now he is rectifying it with a properly thought-out strategy appreciating the centrality of uninterrupted gas supply to the power plants. Repairs of the gas pipelines are being undertaken. After this, gas will be infused into the system to build up the pressure to supply more gas to the generating companies and some of the NIPPS (National Integrated Power Projects).
He continues to think outside of the box. And there is now a glimmer of hope. He is delightfully on the ball about the need to change the energy mix. Now he is ‘sexing-up’ every option including coal, solar and possibly every other conceivable and feasible mix. What is important is that he takes the possible multiplier effect very seriously. As they used to say during the California gold rush ‘There is gold in them tar hills.’
To him there are a lot of new jobs to be created with the new energy mix. The power sector under his guidance is now hiring new engineers, over a thousand of them for PHCN. Ludicrously as well as revealingly they stopped recruiting fresh engineers a long time ago. He is very keen on inducing finance for small and medium scale operators in fields such as solar energy for example. And why not? The British government has just recently established a ‘Green Bank’ to achieve that sort of objective. A natural intellectual curiosity also comes through here. He is enthralled about how solar energy has achieved 24 hours of uninterrupted power supply over the course of a year, in a community in the country.
He is also not very happy about the metering gap. Hitherto, the metering gap has been ludicrously wide. The new initiative to supply million million metres is really superb and should not be unfairly interpreted as an election season gimmick. Considering that the metering gap is estimated at 2.7 million, hard-pressed consumers must be clearly elated at the prospect. The Christian gentleman in him comes out here. The Professor cannot hide his pro-consumer, pro-competition thinking. He clearly has an empathy based on moral ethics for consumers who have been taking to the cleaners as a result of the self-serving ‘estimated’ billing system. Here management efficiency, morality and corporate social responsibility merge.
It’s a long way to go. What is instructive though is that a man of Nebo’s character and intellectual capacity could still pilot a strategic point in the country. It’s happy to see a technocrat surviving the murky waters and keeping his reputation intact. He represents a breath of fresh air; he is an indication that all is not lost.
