The truism that inefficient, inadequate and irregular supply of electricity in Nigeria is affecting the economic growth and development of the nation needs no heretical contradiction. What many have failed to realise is the non-impact of electricity supply in the lives of rural dwellers and other Nigerians who live in the suburb or satellite towns of major cities.
The United Nations Report on access to power notes that there is a wide gap in power supply. Prof Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power, who quoted that report while declaring open the Nigerian Renewable Energy Private Equity Seminar, acknowledged the federal government’s failure to connect about 30million Nigerians, particularly resident of rural communities, to the national grid and living without electricity supply.
As a way out, the minister, represented at the seminar by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, noted that the federal government would want more private sector financing to improve electricity supply, especially in the affected rural communities.He said it is the desire of the federal government to meet the need of the electricity consumers and that this has prompted its focusing on renewable energy, particularly off-grid solar and small hydros that would not need to depend on the national grid.
He added that the financing process for the 3050 megawatts Mambilla Hydro Dam would soon be completed and the plant would be flagged up by President Goodluck Jonathan. Nebo also noted that there are 264 hydro dams in the country, which have not been fully utilized, but expressed happiness that in the first quarter of this year government did a study and is fixing the turbines and other components in 12 of them to increase their generation capacity.
The new policy initiative in the power sector is coming just as the criticism from the United Nations that the federal government of Nigeria has failed to provide power supply to millions of Nigerians is heightening.The criticism came from the petition by the UN special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Ms Magdalena Carmona, and the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Hosing as a Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living and on the Right to Non-discrimination, Ms Raquel Rolnik.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability project, a non-governmental organisation, in a statement penultimate Sunday, said the two rapporteurs blamed the government of President Goodluck Jonathan for the impact of the multi-year tariff order II and its detrimental impact on the realization of human rights of people living in extreme poverty in Nigeria.The Joint letter reference number NGA 5/2013 and dated November 26, 2013 which was signed by both Carmona and Rolnik, expressed disappointment at the failure of the federal government to provide a functioning metering system in the country.
The rapporteurs believe that the absence of metering system limits the ability to accurately set prices for electricity and leaves electricity bills vulnerable to mismanagement and arbitrary decisions, disproportionately affecting people living in poverty.They also warned that certain group of Nigerians already vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion, including women heads of households and persons living in informal settlements and rural areas, may be especially affected by the rise in tariffs under the MYTO II enacted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on 1 June 2012.
We urge the federal government to respond to the query by the two rapporteurs. Surely, the electricity supply and regulation in Nigeria has not met the yearnings of Nigerians.Indeed more than 60million Nigerians have no access to electricity supply. That is why government must do more to improve power supply in the country.
