By Christopher Afolabi, (32-year long broadcast journalist with Radio Nigeria, largest Radio Network in Nigeria)
Today, I begin with an issue that affects everybody, including the baby in the womb—electricity.
The Federal Government of Nigeria MUST declare a state of emergency in the Power Sector. The simple reason is that the Sector has no electricity to give to Nigerians. As if to add insult to injury, the Sector is contemplating increasing tariffs.
A simple analogy will suffice. South Africa has a population of 50 million and generates 50,000 megawatts of electricity. Conversely, Nigeria has a population of 200 million and generates between THREE and FOUR thousand megawatts.
This explains why the Energy Sector cannot give Nigerians’ Electricity. Hence, the epileptic power supply or total darkness.
Or how else do you explain that an organization that is producing energy is using generators to power it’s offices across the nation, what then are we talking about?
I was at a Fair organised by Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company recently. You could see the organizational inertia in the system. As if that was not enough, they had to power the venue with generator. What an irony of circumstance? Or; rather, I mean what a shame of a Nation christened the giant of Africa.
My Bible tells me that what you don’t have, you don’t give.
In conclusion, therefore, the time to declare a state of emergency in the Sector is now. The issue of provision of electricity for our industries and for domestic use is a jinx that the government has to break now. The all government controlled energy sector never worked. The seven year old so called privatization of the power sector has been a disaster. Indices of power generation, evacuation and distribution are incapable of producing and supplying power. The time to address the problem in a realist manner is now.
By Christopher Afolabi, (32-year long broadcast journalist with Radio Nigeria, largest Radio Network in Nigeria)
Today, I begin with an issue that affects everybody, including the baby in the womb—electricity.
The Federal Government of Nigeria MUST declare a state of emergency in the Power Sector. The simple reason is that the Sector has no electricity to give to Nigerians. As if to add insult to injury, the Sector is contemplating increasing tariffs.
A simple analogy will suffice. South Africa has a population of 50 million and generates 50,000 megawatts of electricity. Conversely, Nigeria has a population of 200 million and generates between THREE and FOUR thousand megawatts.
This explains why the Energy Sector cannot give Nigerians’ Electricity. Hence, the epileptic power supply or total darkness.
Or how else do you explain that an organization that is producing energy is using generators to power it’s offices across the nation, what then are we talking about?
I was at a Fair organised by Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company recently. You could see the organizational inertia in the system. As if that was not enough, they had to power the venue with generator. What an irony of circumstance? Or; rather, I mean what a shame of a Nation christened the giant of Africa.
My Bible tells me that what you don’t have, you don’t give.
In conclusion, therefore, the time to declare a state of emergency in the Sector is now. The issue of provision of electricity for our industries and for domestic use is a jinx that the government has to break now. The all government controlled energy sector never worked. The seven year old so called privatization of the power sector has been a disaster. Indices of power generation, evacuation and distribution are incapable of producing and supplying power. The time to address the problem in a realist manner is now.