On the 19^th of February, 2008, our dear servant leader, Umar Yar’Adua inaugurated a task force, to among others, ensure the generation of an additional 6000 MW of electricity within 18 months.

As part of the communication released by Segun Adeniyi, the President’s Press Secretary, the terms of reference for the task force included the following;

1. Conduct an independent technical, financial and legal audit of infrastructure in Nigeria’s power sector;

2. Source funding for the completion of ongoing NIPP projects based on terms and conditions mutually-acceptable to the Federal Government and investors;

3. Provide inputs for the design of an appropriate securitization structure to attract credible investors to the power sector; and

4. Provide inputs for a power purchase agreement template that will ensure a reasonable level of return on investment for investors and affordable tariffs for consumers.

Mr Adeniyi also announced that the task force is expected to present an interim report of its findings to the President within 30 days of its inauguration. This is where my question arises. It’s been 31 days since the inauguration of this task force and to the best of my knowledge no interim report has been presented to the President. Infact, information that I am getting is that the task force members have not even met! Though, this has been independently verified.

This present administration must realize that a new crop of Nigerians have emerged that will not allow the profligacy and unfulfilled promises that have characterized previous administrations to go by without calling attention to it. Political office holders in Nigeria have for long exploited the general amnesia within the Nigerian populace by making bold pronouncements and not following them up with action, because Nigerians will forget about it and carry on with their lives. Afterall, life is hard enough in Nigeria for anyone to think about promises made by some political office holder. But, I say this has got to change and it is changing. We, Nigerians are going to start asking the hard questions and getting the truth out of elected officials. If the government decides to ignore our questions, then We, Nigerians will have to decide whether we will allow this bunch of profligate politicians to continue to squander our common wealth or we will do whatever it takes to rescue our dear country from these pack of jackals, either by force or by peace. The latter I think, is the duty of every well-meaning Nigerian.

To this end, I am through this medium, requesting the following from Aso Rock;

1. The release of the minutes of the meetings held by members of this task force since its inauguration to determine if they have even met!

2. A statement from the Presidency explaining to Nigerians why the interim report from this task force has not been presented to the President and what is being done to address that.

3. If indeed, the report has been presented to the President, it should be made public, so that Nigerians can get a sense of the task force’s plan to deliver on its mandate.

These much, I sincerely believe we deserve as Nigerians.

It is unfathomable that Nigerian companies, especially those in the manufacturing sector, spend an average of 40 cents per Kwh, while their counterparts in the industrialized world spend an average of 5 cents for the same amount of electricity. If Nigeria companies can cut the cost of electricity by 50%, most will become profitable again in a short time, and the once that are already profitable will be come more profitable. Profitability means rising stock value. It also means companies become more liquid and are able to expand. Expansion means more jobs are created and prices may even go down.

The solution is complex, yet achievable. However, one lesson learned from the OBJ experiment of 8 years is that the top-down approach has failed! The solution has to be bottom-up in nature.

For starters, whatever plan put together by this Presidential task force to generate the 6000 MW must not, even remotely, include building new power plants or anything that has to do with NIPP plants that are uncompleted, because that would be pure insanity. Rather, they need to focus their attention on ways of optimizing production from the power plants currently onstream. This I believe they can achieve within the 18 month time-frame with proper planning and diligent implementation.

I must also say that the long term solution to the problem is not the investigation of how much OBJ spent on NIPP. Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the investigation. However, this is not the immediate problem. The immediate problem is how we generate enough electricity to serve our national interest. To this end, the National Assembly should, as a matter of national emergency, start identifying and inviting independent experts in this field to give testimony on the way forward. The testimony of these experts should form the nucleus of a power generation strategic plan to take care of our long term power needs. This plan should be passed into law before the Presidential task force completes its work to bring about a smooth transition.

The dynamism shown by members of the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives in recent times makes me believe in their ability to turn things around for the better regarding power generation. However, they must stop playing to the gallery and get down to work on finding a lasting solution to this problem.

Robot  # 1 | 22.03.2008 11:44

Whatever plan put together by this Presidential task force to generate the 6000 MW must not, eve...Read the full article.