EPILEPTIC POWER SUPPLY? WILL SOON BE HISTORY- BASOLA AFOLAKE

Based on the current value/ exchange rate of the naira against the dollar, Nigeria’s government officials spend millions of naira every year on overseas trip under the guise of wanting to learn how things are being done over there. Lo and behold! In regards to Power Supply, that is no longer necessary because Bonny Kingdom at our doorstep here has the solution to Nigeria epileptic power supply. In July year, this community will celebrate 7 years of uninterrupted power supply. (Re: See Guardian, Saturday June 21, 2008; Business Roundup). At this stage, it suffice to say if Bonny Kingdom can do it, then Nigeria can do it.
Last administration, the power sector gulped 126 billion naira. Last year, on the federal allocation budget, we spent 18 billion, yet with no visible results. This year, the budget cannot be ascertained yet. Few weeks back, his Excellency, President Musa Yar’ Adua got a 600 million dollars loan from the World Bank which is to be gulped by the power sector. Furthermore, in line with his Excellency speech on May 29, it is obvious that the government does not have a clear-cut plan for generating power supply. He admitted that it is not within his knowledge the amount of megawatts that would be sufficient for Nigeria’s consumption, now or in, the future.
First of all, the government must realize that this solution cannot be procured all by themselves, they need outside help. Thus, they should be ready to enlist the help of private companies companies to carry out this venture. Succintly put, it would be a joint-venture between Nigeria government and private companies. Specifically, multi – national companies whom are ready to do it, not out of gain, but borne out of a desire to make Nigeria a force to reckon with, in the World. According to studies by International Energy Agency (IEA), access to modern energy services is a key to social and economic progress in any country. Also, long standards rise sharply as per capital energy consumption increase. Economists have long established a strong correlation between poverty and lack of energy.
Secondly, Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria (PHCN) needs to be scrapped, and a new utility company created. At this juncture, I would strongly suggest that, these acts should be done by state governments and not federal. Essence of this is, residents of each state must be stakeholders for this to work. An individual of good reputation should be picked from each local government to form the members of the Board of this new utility company. Human behaviour have shown that people work better and have higher likelihood of being honest when they personally have something at stake. Furthermore, with the joint finances of the MNC and the state government, a plant would be built and its power capacity would be attracted to the generating plant of oil companies or those multi-national companies if its plants have enough capacity to carry it but if this is impossible, then the new built plant would be connected to the plant that are functioning properly. Every house, company or industry would be reconnected to the new built plan free of charge or a subsidized token fee that is well affordable would be installed to each house, company or industry.
I strongly recommend that Lagos be a model city for this project. Studies in the last 10 years have shown that whatsoever Lagos state government decides to do, they excel remarkably. Mario Caenan, the former General Manager of Bonny Utility Company (BUC) and John Heijland, the celebrated engineer who led Bonny out of the epileptic power supply are role models whose styles need to be steadfastly learnt. Thus, they should be allowed to train technicians and engineers in each state, who would then transfer this new knowledge to other technicians and engineers employed in the utility company.
Conclusively, grave attention and absolute digestion of this sound idea, though still rough at the edges would definitely lead to something concrete and Nigerians can enjoy uninterrupted power supply before 2011.