Between 50MW and 4000MW electricity for 200m citizens after 6 decades?

The news of the continued collapse of Nigeria’s power grid no longer shock citizens. They have adjusted to life, having realised they need to do all they can to provide means necessary for their productivity. This is not peculiar to electricity; security, social infrastructure, and other means also suffer. It is a pitiable situation for the people and the helplessness is palpably pitiful. More than 200 million of the population deserve better.

Whether there would come a time in the nearest memory where the nation can boast of at least, comfortable 100 megawatts of electricity after over six decades of independence is something those who follow developments have sadly given up on.

Smaller nations such as South Africa and others are boasting of hundreds of megawatts with some having to practically shut down injection stations because of over-availability. But here, Nigerians are having to deal with an unfriendly environment for doing practically everything; including knowledge acquisition in public institutions of learning.

That the power grid collapsed again on Wednesday, 20th July, 2022, crashing from the 3,921.8 megawatts that was generated to as low as 50MW which caused widespread blackout across the country is not surprising. In fact, nothing surprises Nigerians any more. I was born to hear people shout “Up NEPA!” practically everyday as power must go off and come back on after some time. Those in power laugh at my efforts to see that my children don’t grow up to meet the same situation. I am more than afraid that I might fail as my own offsprings would grow up to still meet people shouting as near absence of power supply continue to be our bane.

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With everyday occurences in the sector, Nigerians are increasingly beginning to believe the conspiracy theories about the stronghold of some powerful importers of power generating machines who would do anything within and out of their powers to frustrate availability of sufficient energy because of their ties with those in power. With the current economic policies and the waning purchasing abilities of citizens, access to alternative power sources have continued to be nearly impossible. High rate of poverty and unemployment due to the unfriendly economic climate continue to put the country in dire straits.

For example, Industry figures obtained from the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja showed that power generation on the grid had hit a peak of 4,091.6MW on Tuesday which then dropped to 3,921.8MW on Wednesday morning, before crashing to about 50MW. This development led to the eventual collapse of the national electricity grid. This is not the first or the second time it is happening. It has happened repeatedly and has become a culture without any form of accountability or responsibility. In serious climes, heads should roll. People should get fired where something happens and the best explanation would almost be no explanations at all.

Power or electricity is the one singular sector capable of launching the country on the global map towards real economic prosperity. The craft, grit and brilliance of citizens can better be encouraged with the availability of electricity. The entrepreneurial spirit of the people would better be ‘gingered’ if they have access to power on a regular basis.

The frustration read from the tone of power distribution companies who confirm to TheNewsGuru about the collapse makes the matter even more pitiful. In fact, these companies had to put out various notifications to their customers, telling them they couldn’t get supplies because of the situation.

Let me add at this point that things have worsened for citizens under the Buhari administration across sectors than they were under the government he succeeded. The power sector is not peculiar. This demonstrates the monumental level of ineptitude and crass incompetencies currently being paraded.

Cleaner alternative energy sources in requisite qualities such as solar and others are beyond the reaches of average Nigerians. The only source they rely on is the public power which is unfortunately dwindling by the day.

To read, “We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline. We will keep you updated on the situation,” is a bitter taste to the mouth of small business owners who have had to fight tooth and nail in recent times to purchase fuel from the filling stations as uncertainty rages between regulators and oil transporters.

The Kaduna Electric had attributed the power failure in its franchise areas to the grid collapse. “We regret to inform our customers that the power failure currently being experienced is as a result of the collapse of the national grid which occured by 11:28am this (Wednesday) morning,” it stated.

Also, Kano Electricity Distribution Company said the grid collapse led to blackout nationwide.

What this means is there was no power the whole of Wednesday in majority states of the North. Calculate the cost of man hours lost and the economic productivity impeded. In turn, national economy records negative points. Simple Economics.

The excuse by ‘experts’ and operators attributed the collapse to incessant vandalism of power infrastructure as well as the rupturing of gas pipelines that supplied gas to power plants is not enough. This is something that has been occuring and reoccurring. In fact, Wednesday’s collapse made it the sixth time the system had crashed in 2022. The nation’s power system also collapsed twice in March and twice again in April this year. Power generation on the grid had continued to fluctuate due to various concerns such as gas constraints, water management challenges, and gas pipeline vandalism, among others.

Nobody is talking about proven efforts being put in place to address these anomalies. It is not enough to identify errors when there is no will to correct such wrongs.

That the quantum of electricity on the grid crashed from over 3,000MW on April 8, 2022, to as low as 10MW was one of the lowest periods since the phenomenon began. Unfortunately, even if it totally crashed, the government would do nothing to those it has put in charge. Did I just say, ‘un charge?’ Are they in charge? I doubt if we are not on autopilot under this administration.

Recall that the national grid had twice collapsed within a space of two days. The development made the Federal Government to summon a meeting of stakeholders to address the issue. With that, one would have thought all would become well going forward. But no; not in Nigeria. Not under President Muhammadu Buhari.

That we are still hovering around 4000 megawatts of electricity and less is such a disgrace to say the least. Nigeria has a good deposit of resources it can use to generate electricity for the people’s use. It should not be enduring this high level dearth that is negatively impacting and frustrating efforts ordinary people to contribute, in practical terms, to the nation’s economy.

Young people are out there working assiduously in all areas of endeavor – science and technology, art and craft, innovative hubs are also emerging in all corners of the nation from pure efforts of ordinary people. These set of persons must be encouraged to take their destinies in their own hands. These incessant collapse of the power grid must end.