It is a shame, really.
Whether or not it was bungling incompetence or crass corruption or both, three past governments spent N2.74 trillion to generate, transmit, and distribute 4,500 megawatts of power in 16 years for a population of 170 million.
The sum is mind-boggling. The meagre 4,500mw left the Senate Committee on Power speechless just as we are dumbfounded by the greed which underscored supplying power on the public grid at a cost of N60 million per megawatt.
The first day of the sitting of the committee, chaired by Senator Abubakar Kyari (APC, Borno North), on Tuesday, September 8 heard Godknows Igali, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, drop the bombshell.
Igali’s revelation justified Senate President Bukola Saraki’s endorsement of the probe of the power value chain of generation, transmission, and distribution, and to identify the problems with boosting power supply.
It equally lends credence to President Muhammadu Buhari’s persistence with the anti-graft war to recover all funds stolen by former public officeholders.
In tandem with the oil price collapse on the international market, the consequences of the abysmal failure of three former Presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan – to ensure power supply will haunt Nigerians for decades.
The failure of the corruption-induced governments to supply power from the national grid turned the country into a “generator economy”.
All sizes and models of generators polluted the environment with noise, fire, soot, and fumes injurious to human health. No reliable study has determined the consequences yet.
Worse, businesses whose operations were crippled by high-priced diesel packed up and relocated to neighbouring countries. High unemployment level aggravated the crime rate.
The unemployment ranks were swollen by operators of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), some of whom are relieved that their generators are now silent because power supply has improved significantly over the past three months.
However, the euphoria over power supply through “Buhari’s body language” of no nonsense should not mask the reality that the mismanagement, looting, and diversion of huge public funds into private pockets led to the paltry 4,500mw supply from the national grid.
South Africa, with a population of 52.9 million, generates 66,750mw. And Nigeria is believed to be the giant of Africa.
While the probe continues, the National Assembly has a duty to amend the Constitution to free the power sector from Exclusive List encumbrances which tied all power supply to the apron strings of the national grid and the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
Former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, generated power from small, gas-fired thermal plants, which enable the government, individuals, groups, and other private investors to generate power for use without transferring it to the national grid.
With funding from Fidelity Bank, the state government secretariat in Alausa and its environs, and Mainland Local Government have uninterrupted power without tunnelling the energy into the national grid.
In China, small, coal-fired plants light new communities.
With tonnes of clean coal in Enugu and technologies which minimise noxious environmental pollution gases, Nigerian communities can also generate power cheaply and supply SMEs to create jobs and wealth.
The probe of the looting of the power sector in 2007 by the House of Representatives Committee chaired by Ndudi Elumelu ended in a fiasco.
The report of that committee was shredded by lawmakers alarmed by the preliminary findings of huge stolen funds amid accusations of committee members being set up and bribed with N5 billion rural electrification fund.
Therefore, the Kyari committee must complete its investigation with clean hands without ordering work stoppages that delayed the completion of National Independent Power Projects under Niger Delta Holdings.
Despite the privatisation of power assets, questions remain unanswered about the unbundling of generating companies (Gencos) and distribution companies (Discos) to cronies and their subsequent refinancing by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Privatisation was understood to mean outright purchase by new owners with technical competence, financial muscle, and competent foreign technical partners to ensure hands-free operations.
Crooks expected to be indicted in the looting of the colossal power sector funds during the administrations of Obasanjo and Jonathan will provide the test case for Buhari’s dictum of ‘no sacred cows’ in the anti-graft war.
