to the constant 15 minutes interruption at intervals, caused by power failure eight different times. This forced power sector operators to make use of their phone light and video camera light to make their presentations to the committee in a country claiming to be the "Giant of Africa". Microphones and other electrical appliances couldn't be used as camera men made use of their camera light to capture events. More shock was to come, when during the presentation the Managing Director of Enugu Distribution Company , Mr Robert Dickerman claimed that the entire power industry was being run at a "Deficit of #20 billion per month " which is due to the fact that more than 50% of electricity consumers in the country were not metered and also more than 30% not present on the billing system of service providers. He also claimed that only #5 billon out of the #100 billion subsidy injection promise has been paid by the Central Bank.
The question therefore is how things got so bad with all the trillion oil sales the country has made in the past few years while the price of crude oil was at it's peak. The answer to the problem could be solved by recalling that years ago, President Olusegun Obasanjo during his inaugural speech pledged to ensure that power outrages were a thing of the past to Nigerians in his first six months in power. First of all Obasanjo appointed a competent team led by Engineer Bello Sulaiman to head the New NEPA management team with Chief Bola Ige as Minister of Power and Steel. Few months after , Engr Sulaiman was sacked because he refused to play ball and purchase an old cannibalized and over 30 years old generator "Packaged" as new by an Irish Procurement company. The plan was to purchase it at £3 million and record it at £40 million which the then National Assembly had already approved.Senator Liyel Imoke (now ex governor of Cross River State) was appointed in Sulaiman's place. Chief Bola Ige was made redundant and when he was about to resign, he was suspiciously assassinated in his hometown and the man accused of assassinating him (Otunba Omisore) went on to contest for Senate on the platform of the Presidents PDP and won in prison.
NEPA was renamed PHCN while it's services became worse and Obasanjo's cronies appointed as PHCN "revenue collectors ". Imoke was then appointed the Minister of Power and $16 billon approved and expended on Obasanjo's power reforms under Imoke and this resulted in the decline of the power generation of the company from 2600mw in May 1999(Before Obasanjo assumed office ) to 2300mw at the end of his 8 wasted and unproductive years as president in May 2007. This meant power generation decreased by 300mw after spending as much as $16 billon instead of it's projected increase of 10,000mw.
It should also be noted that, even with the $16 billon, not a single transmission line was added to the existing ones. And both transmission and distribution systems suffered further degradation.
Further more, it is clear that power outrage problems did not start with the Obasanjo government but under his watch the highest and astronomical fund was allocated and spent on power sector revival and at the end it only "Failed and Failed Woefully". At the end Obasanjo left power with after 8 years of inept policies, mismanagement and misappropriation along with financial waste and fraud.
So while the government of both Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were not able to solve this long standing problem after making 'unrealistic ' campaign promises , at the same time these men are not the main problem behind the power sector collapse. It is clear that only Obasanjo knows what and where it all went wrong. The answers cannot be far fetched, rather it (answers) steers straight at us. Justice must be done and those found guilty of diverting and looting appropriated funds for the "Sick" power sector dealt with by the law.
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