Federal Government was reported last week, to be planning to sell electricity to Burkina Faso __ a neighbouring West African country. This rather shocking and disturbing information was revealed by Managing Director of Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, MESL, Mr. Lamu Audu, at the annual Power and Utilities Roundtable organised in Lagos by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). According to Audu, MESL which operates Kainji and Jebba hydro power plants took this decision so as to fully utilise energy being rejected by electricity distribution companies (DISCOS).
Audu said: “We are talking to Burkina Faso on this issue. We are aware that some Nigerian power firms sell electricity to Togo and Benin Republic, amongst others. We are not the first to do so. Currently, we have a capacity of 922 megawatts but on the average, it is only 600 megawatts to 650 megawatts generated on the network that is received by DISCOS. Burkina Faso is ready to pay for the whole electricity invoice sent to the country at a higher price”.
This is ridiculous to hapless consumers who successive administrations have denied uninterrupted electricity supply due to bad power policies. It is ironic the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration intends to sell electricity to Burkina Faso even at a higher price, despite that millions of electricity consumers in Nigeria are increasingly finding it difficult to have access to electricity supply.
Indeed, this is a step in the wrong direction. We implore government to rescind its decision which has since been condemned by many Nigerians. It is clear indication that government is insensitive to plight of electricity consumers who apart from not having enough electricity for local and industrial consumption to sufficiently grow the ailing economy, but are also made to pay for darkness.
By selling balance of electricity to other African countries willing to take up the whole electricity invoice at a higher price than what Nigerians are prepared to pay, is laughable. What this implies is that government’s motive is to make profit at all costs through other African countries not minding that electricity consumers in Nigeria are not only experiencing inadequate electricity supply but service delivery by DISCOS and GENCOS has deteriorated.
It is unfortunate that to government and service providers, charity should not begin at home just because other African countries, some of which were recently reported to owe Nigeria backlog of debts arising from electricity supplied to them over a period, are willing to pay at higher price. It is sad that government which claims welfare of the citizenry is its priority could be selling electricity to other African countries to develop their economies while epileptic electricity supply has seriously affected Nigeria’s economy to the extent that many blue-chip manufacturing companies have not only shut down but have relocated to neighbouring countries with favourable operating environments where they are obviously, contributing immeasurably to economic development of such countries. This has also led to job losses which have invariably resulted in increase in crime rate, as well as decline in local and foreign investments in Nigeria.
Audu attributed government’s plan to sell electricity to Burkina Faso and other African countries to inability or failure of DISCOS to utilise stranded energy. This reason is unacceptable. Has government identified why the service providers have not been able to receive the entire 922 megawatts of electricity generated on the network? Has government, in collaboration with GENCOS and DISCOS, found lasting solution to age-long problems associated with generation, transmission and distribution? For as long as these hydra-headed problems persist, there will be inadequate supply of electricity to consumers. Power is the engine that drives the economy.
It is unfortunate that issue of unused energy has been recurring problem bedevilling the wobbling and corruption-ridden power sector. Exactly a year ago, the federal government promised to connect manufacturers and industrial clusters to 2,000 megawatts unused electricity. According to Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the action, contained in government’s Customers’ Eligibility Policy, was to ensure power generation companies supply electricity to willing customers.
However, it was later learnt that while many Nigerians welcomed the move since it would help accelerate government’s industrialisation and socio-economic transformation programmes, the power distribution companies reportedly kicked against the laudable move which would obviously, enable more Nigerians have access to electricity supply. Instead, they reportedly prefer to sell unused electricity to Burkina Faso and other African countries “willing to pay higher price than what Nigerians are ready to pay”.
Nigeria’s power sector is in a precarious situation requiring decisive action. Government should muster political will to review the controversial 2013 privatisation exercise variously referred to as fraud in order to bring in serious investors. Sale of Nigeria’s electricity to others should stop for now. Instead, the stranded energy should be sold to Nigerians to boost the economy.
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