$10 Billion and the Energy Question

Besides the controversial third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, one other issue that marked down his government is the failure to fix the electricity problem in Nigeria. He had come to office with a bubbling gusto determined to, for once, deal decisively with the energy problem in the nation. It had looked at the time that Obasanjo was coming to office mainly to address the energy problem. But eight years after, not only was he unable to handle the issue, we have now been told that a whopping sum of $10 Billion was blown up in attending to an energy sector that actually got worse than he met. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Oladimeji Bankole, says the amount so spent is $16billion.Whatever the amount was, what remains undoubted is the fact that it was a colossal waste. What with the fact that despite that huge expended sum, what Nigerians got is increased megawatts of darkness and frustration.
Expectedly, the government of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua has made the electricity issue a core concern to his government. It is indeed part of his oft-touted seven-point agenda. But about nine months into his administration, it is not certain how far he has gone on the matter.
It is pertinent to state that Obasanjo’s efforts ended up in ruins because of the wrong-headed strategies he applied to solving the problem. For a government that talked so much about the place and ability of private sector partnership, it is a striking irony that Obasanjo undertook the electricity project all alone without involving the private sector. Was this deliberate? Was it naivety? It is even more painful to note that the private sector had indeed proposed to undertake the building of plants that could raise the nation’s capacity to over 2,000 mwt, which would have been a far cry from the measly 2,500mwt we are presently battling to sustain. Oil companies like Mobil, Agip, Shell and other Energy-related companies like ABB and AES had indicated interest in financing the projects at a far lesser cost than the PHCN can ever offer. And all of these would have come to light in three or so years. But despite the assurance the proposal held with a strong potential in delivering us from the electricity enigma, the project was not only bungled but programmed to fail by those whose selfish interest would be served with a continuation of the ignoble status quo. If the oil companies were allowed to handle the project, not only would our electricity profile improve greatly, the $10billion flushed down the drain would have been freed for use in other ailing sectors like education, health, infrastructure etc.
The nation, under Obasanjo, was thus made to suffer double jeopardy over this electricity conundrum
But away from the lamentations of the past is the challenge now before President Yar’Adua. Yes, we believe he needs to have full understanding of the problem before proffering solution, but we believe also that this cannot take forever. Nine months into his administration have not raised our hope.
For an administration that intends to be among the world’s 20 greatest economies in 13 years time, the imperative of stable electricity can hardly be over emphasized. Or which industrialized nation of the world became so with epileptic power supply?
The initial activism about declaring the state of emergency on the energy sector has long gone whimperish. No action plan has been launched to demonstrate commitment to the issue. Much as Nigerians are completely perplexed over the energy issue, we believe that it is not an intractable problem. We also believe that Mr President can begin to do something. The option of involving a wider spectrum of the private sector community still holds a lot of attraction.
The nation stands to benefit from the efficiency and prudence associated with the private sector, if and when they are involved in this issue.
More crucial perhaps is for the President to summon enough willpower to confront the clique of powerful and influential bureaucrats who will often thwart every idea and strategy that will be of lesser benefit to them but of greater benefit to majority of Nigerians.
All said, Nigerians eagerly wait for Mr President’s action plan on how to make electricity stable in Nigeria. This is a core concern of majority of Nigerians, because with stable power supply, several other economic concerns would ben addressed inadvertently