26th October, 2010
For most of last week, many cities in the country experienced total blackout as electricity supply dropped to an abysmal level. The shortfall led to massive rationing of electricity that made many people who had believed that supply was improving to ask what was amiss again.
Those in charge have come out to say that electricity supply to the national grid dropped following a major fault caused by the overflow of water from the dam at the Shiroro Hydropower Plant in Niger State.
We have been told that the fault led to a slash of 450 megawatts (mw) of electricity supply from the national grid thereby compounding the epileptic power supply in the country. According to the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Wya, with the shortfall of electricity power from the national grid which recently stood at about 3,500mw, it has dropped to 3,0000mw.
Perhaps to allay the fears of electricity consumers, the minister assured that the fault was being rectified and that power generation and supply was due to resume at the plant by yesterday (Monday).
Well, it is our duty to let the minister know that as at today, the power situation in the country has not improved. In fact, it has gotten worse. To confirm our assertion, the minister only needs to visit Lagos at night and observe the revolting noises of generating sets vibrating on streets throughout the state. We are very sure that the same situation is being witnessed in other large cities of the country.
There will always be one excuse or the other to justify inefficiency on the part of government officials charged with managing its activities. If it’s not overflow of water, there will be water shortage or a snake will cause disruption of activities at the Shiroro dam and cause major problem which will ultimately lead to a cut in electricity supply.
The minister should be told in unmistaken language that Nigerians are tired of these excuses and are desirous of having a stable electricity supply.
It is time the government put its act together and tackle the hydra-headed monster of poor power supply headlong.
Pray, what happened to the promise made by President Goodluck Jonathan in Lagos while unveiling the blue print for a stable power supply that PHCN will be unbundled for private investors to participate in? Nigerians will also want to know what the 20 private power companies licensed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to generate electricity in the country are doing to ameliorate their suffering occasioned by unstable power supply.
If the private investors say the present tariff being charged by PHCN was a disincentive for their participation in the power sector, what is the government doing to address this? It is not enough for the government to be giving excuses for its apparent failure in meeting the yearning of the people for a stable electricity supply, something concrete must be done to meet their expectation in this regard.
We hereby call on the Goodluck Jonathan administration once again to focus its attention on the power sector and fulfil its promise of addressing the problem before the 2011 elections.
President Jonathan should direct all those involved in the committees he set up on adequate power supply to buckle up and provide electricity for Nigerians.
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