Tahir: My Dream is to See Nigeria Have Safe, Reliable Power Supply

In this interview with Emmanuel Addeh, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services and Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, Mr Aliyu Tahir, said his dream is to leave behind a power sector that produces reliable supply of electricity to Nigerians nationwide

Given the enormity of the mandate you have, what have you achieved so far in tangible terms?

I think the good thing is that the previous administration has laid the foundation for the agency and the agency being a new one, is still work in progress and it is expanding gradually. The work is expanding too because it now has to do with covering the entire mandates of the agency. And if you look at the mandate of the agency, basically it is the enforcement of technical standards and regulations, technical inspection, testing as well as certification of all categories of installations across the value chain of generation, transmission, distribution, and even at the utilisation level. This is to ensure efficient production and delivery of safe, reliable electricity to Nigerians. Our activities are divided into five areas. The first area has to do with the electrical installation, that is the new electrical installation that are coming into  grid connections. We ensure that we carry out inspection, testing or certification of those installations before they are allowed to be connected or to be put to use. The second area is the issue of existing networks. We carry out monitoring and evaluation of the existing networks to ensure continuous fitness of the network to be able to deliver the services they are constructed to deliver. The third area has to do with the personnel that are involved in the installation works across the country. We certify these persons to ensure that they are competent and skilled to carry out these electrical installation works in the country. The fourth area has to do with the electrical equipment and materials that are used for this electrical installation works in the country. We also carry out testing and certification of these electrical materials and equipment to ensure that they are of quality and to specifications before they’re allowed to be used for the electrical installations in the country.

Remember we have the meter stations that carry out testing and certification of various categories of electricity meters in the country to ensure they are of high quality of specifications to be able to measure the amount of power consumed, so that the utility company and the consumer are not short-changed. Other materials like the transformers, the cables, the conductors, the concrete poles are also being inspected by our officers. The fifth one is the area of safety. We carry out investigation of electrical accidents across the country to find out the causes, make recommendations to forestall these occurrences and we also carry out safety performance of these companies on a monthly basis. So you can see these five areas are all being carried out by NEMSA and to do that we have a number of inspectorate field offices across the country. Currently, we have 19 inspectorate field offices across the country. We have six national meter test stations. Four are already fully working, while two are under construction. We have engineering and chemical lab that’s also in charge of testing the transformer oil and other lubricants that are used in the power sector.

 Do you have the required manpower to carry out this mandate out?

The number of staff is a challenge. Currently we have about 300 staff and these are deployed across the country. We need more. We need to have offices in all the states of the Federation and the FCT. This what we’re pursuing.

So, in terms of not just personnel but funding, do you have enough?

I think one of the challenges of new agencies in the country has always been inadequate funding. We thank God what we’ are getting is helping us to push ahead and to expand gradually.

But it’s not really where we want to be because, you know that this issue of funding has affected the entire agencies of government and the country. But we are not staying there, we are looking outside the box to see how we can get additional funding, especially from the development partners, and other  areas. We are lucky, I can remember we got some test equipment from one of our development partners. We were one of the development partners, and we’ve got a lot of training from GIZ and so on and so forth. But these are areas we look to see how we can augment the government funding in order to achieve our mandate. We are not there yet, but we are moving on gradually. By God’s grace, we’ll get to where we want to be.

Every quarter, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) rolls out all kinds of industry statistics as to the number of Nigerians who have been injured or have died from some of these electricity-related accidents in the sector. I would like to know what  you are doing to tackle this menace.

 The regulator has been giving us statistics or numbers. And these statistic are basically based on the request received from utility companies. One of our mandates is to carry out the investigation of these incidences. So from these statistics, we can also do our own investigations. So we get reports from them. We get reports from the media, from social media, we get reports from individuals and we carry out investigation of these incidents and the reasons for these investigations is to find out the causes and then decide on the kind of recommendation to forestall further occurrences. From the investigations we have carried out so far which are many , we were able to find out some of the causes and we were able to issue out enforcement directives across the country. One of such directives is that all primary 33Kva   power lines in the country must have a minimum size of conductor of 150 millimetres square of ACSR, which is Aluminium Conductors Steel Reinforcement. So the conductor has steel component as part of it and that steel component is to increase the strength of that conductor. So that we will prevent snapping of conductors across the country because through the snapping of conductors, a lot of incidents have happened. I can   remember the case of students then at the University of Lagos, who were passing and suddenly a conductor snapped and dropped on two sisters and one lost her life and the other sustained injuries.  Imagine this kind of loss to the nation, and you also remember the viewing centre in Calabar because of structures under the power lines. So we have issued out enforcement directives on structures built under the right of way of power lines. We have even gone a step further to direct all the Distribution Companies  (Discos) to disconnect all those structures under power lines from their own power supply as a first step towards the demolition. We’re also in contact with the state governments to see how these structures can be removed. We’ve been in contact with the FCT Development and Control Office. So we’ve been having that interaction for a long time. It’s just unfortunate that because of politics, you know, to carry out this demolition also, is always very hard from the side of the politicians. But this is what we’re pursuing and we expect that the media will also help us on this by sensitising citizens to let them understand the consequences of building these structures or staying under power lines. Because these lines can snap anytime without any notice. The radiation that comes out from the power lines, I mean the higher voltage lines are also dangerous to the people that stay very close to such facilities.

Do you have the mandate or are you empowered to sanction defaulters or those who breach these standards. If you have that mandate, how many have you sanctioned in this period?

 We’ve had some sanctions. But most of the sanctions we have had is outright disconnection of such facilities from the power supply and this has helped tremendously in making sure that all the defects observed and all the recommendations we made for the correction of such networks are carried out immediately. And we’ve had cases where one or two persons were taken to court and we were lucky to have convictions immediately. I remember a case in Kaduna, where we discovered an installation that was badly done and connected to the national grid. When we discovered such, we decided that the culprits should be taken to court and there was a conviction on that. I want to assure you that it will continue and even the electricity bill under consideration at the national assembly, is coming up with more sanctions, and this will surely help us in making sure that the regulations and all the requirements of the regulations have been complied with across the country.

In terms of interagency collaborations, what has been the level of cooperation among other sister government organisations?

One of my strategies coming on board was to improve our collaboration with all agencies. Before I came on board, there was an established collaboration with Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). This has also led to the signing of an MOU between us and SON, which is the overall nationwide standards body. These standards are now used to develop the technical regulation by the NERC. So, we have been working together, we have standing committees. So there are committees that are in charge of developing these standards and we are part of them. We also have a standing committee that has to do with substandard materials. So when we go out for our inspections, and these substandard materials and equipment are discovered, they are now escalated to the SON to ensure that these are removed from the country. It is unfortunate that we are not at the entry points in the country where these are checked. But our collaboration with sister agencies is really helping us to get rid of these substandard material equipment in the country. We’re not yet at that level where you can say you have success 100 per cent success, but we’re moving on and better. We are collaborating with the National Fire Service, Consumer Protection Council and when the issues are discovered, they normally send them to us for technical investigations and we have visited the development control offices in the FCT to be able to discuss our areas of collaboration.

If I find out for instance that an electricity pole in front of my house is substandard or the cable I bought from the market is not up to the quality written on it, how do I go about it as a citizen?

 The first thing is that when you have an electrical installation to carry out, ensure that you employ the services of a certified electrical installation personnel by NEMSA. This certification has been going on for a long time, we have the directory of certified electrical installation personnel on our website so you can verify. Also, on your meters, there are features that you can see on your meters and you will know that the meter has passed through our certification process. Those features are the NEMSA certified seals attached to the meter. You will see the seal of the utility company. You’ll see the seal of NEMSA to show that the meter has been certified okay by us. And then you’ll see the test label of NEMSA indicating that this meter has been tested on this date and will expire on this date so that it will be brought back for recertification. So if you don’t see these two features, it shows that your meter is not certified by NEMSA, so the safety of that meter cannot be guaranteed. So from that point, you can raise the alarm because we have all the addresses of our offices and the contact details, everything is on our website. We are also working on our eyewitness reports so that you can easily interact even with your handset at home. You can download that and then be able to report. It has not been completed yet but we are seriously working on that. So you can report to the utility and report to NEMSA.

 Are you saying that even the Kazeem next door who is an electrician should also have a certification from NEMSA to be able to fix basic installations?

 Yes, because it is not allowed by law for anyone to go and carry out electrical installations without the certification by NEMSA. And the reason for certifying personnel is because of traceability. Because if you have an electrical installation in your house without certification,  it’s like the same thing living with a wired time bomb and the unfortunate thing is that you don’t know the time it will explode. But the time bomb that you are seeing the clock tick, you can run, but this one you can’t, so it’s more dangerous. So if you allow your electrical installation to be carried out by somebody that’s not competent, the tendency that he will do a bad job is high and it’s risky.

So, what process’s does this certification take?

We have the field offices across the country and in each field office; we have a panel for the certification of electrical installation. We already have the forms on our website where you can fill, submit your documents online and then a date for the interview will be communicated to you before you appear. These certifications are in categories. We have the highest category which is category A,B, C, D in that order. For each category, there is a level of electrical work they are allowed to carry out. So the kind of electrical installation you will carry out depends on your category of certification. So it is a simple process to follow. And the process is done in such a way that to ensure that the competent and skilled persons are allowed to carry out electrical insulations. They don’t need to come to Abuja from the states, we have offices near them.

What would you term your biggest challenges, aside funding and personnel?

Electricity is a good servant but a bad master.  There are risks and dangers associated with electricity. So, the major challenge is how to make the citizens aware of these risks so that when you know the risks involved, you will stay away or treat it with caution. You will abide by all the regulations or the requirements that are put in place for your safety. But people cut corners, they just call any person they want during installation.

What do you think can be done to improve substandard electrical materials and in comparison with those from abroad how do you rate our local products.

This has been bothering us at NEMSA for a long time looking at the number of substandard electrical materials and equipment coming into the country. And this also led us now collaborate with SON. On this note, I want to thank the SON for ensuring that its standards are really adhered to at cable manufacturing level in the country to the point that people import cables from outside and brand them as made in Nigeria. So you can see how quality helps the development of a country. So we want this to be sustained in all the other manufacturing electrical materials and equipment in the country.

 Top of the mind now, what would you like to be the biggest achievement in the sector by the time you exit the industry?

 I’ve been in the power sector for so long.  It has been my dream to see that in this country, we have a safe, reliable and sustainable power supply.  It has been happening in so many other countries. We want the same thing to happen in our country. And this has been my dream. So what I want at the end of my tenure is to look back and see that I have contributed immensely to the realisation of this safe, reliable, sustainable power supply in the country.