ASIWAJU MUST UNLOCK NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL

Tinubu’s Presidency should set up teams of experts that will drive the power and rail sectors of the economy, writes Ahmed Ibrahim  

President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man of history. As he prepares to assume office as the 16th President of Nigeria, the world’s largest Black democracy, the task of unlocking the huge potential which made many experts view the country as a future world power is on his lap. A deft manager of resources, Tinubu has been presented with a golden opportunity to goad Africa’s most populous country on the path of Eldorado. Now that he’s fully rejuvenated after a refreshing holiday in France, Tinubu’s eyes should be set on setting up two major teams of experts that will drive the power and rail sectors that may ultimately define the legacy of his government.

The signing of two major bills by President Muhammadu Buhari which grants the states greater stake in the power and rail sectors are obviously game changers that the Tinubu presidency should greatly exploit to make Nigeria transform its teething problems, particularly in industrialisation. This holds the key to generating huge jobs for our teeming youth population and arresting the mass emigration to Europe and America. Nigeria needs about 60,000 megawatts for its 200 million population but has only been able to generate a paltry 7000 megawatts. With its antiquated and poorly maintained equipment, it’s been able to distribute a mere 4000 megawatts. Allowing the states access to transmission, distribution, and generation of electricity means greater resources will be deployed by the states to the power sector. The benefits are unquantifiable. It may signal the end of the country’s protracted epileptic power problems. 

Tinubu has been one of the country’s biggest advocates of decentralization of electricity transmission, generation, and distribution with his stillborn Enron electricity project that was halted by the federal government when he was Governor of Lagos State. He can be regarded as the father of the Independent Power Project (IPP) in Nigeria. Under his leadership, Lagos State and a US power company signed an $800-million deal to supply electricity to some eight million residents of Nigeria’s largest metropolitan area and commercial hub. The project, signed by Tinubu and officials of Enron Power Nigeria Ltd, was envisaged to be done in two phases. 

The first phase was to generate 90 megawatts (MW) of electricity, described by The Guardian as equivalent to 20 percent of the total power supplied to the state by the defunct Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA), a poorly performing state firm. Phase two involved the building of a new 5609-MW gas turbine power plant. A 280-kilometer, 24-inch natural gas pipeline was also to be built to supply the station. The entire project was expected to create at least 2,500 jobs in the long term, AFP reported, quoting Lagos State officials who said they signed the deal because they could not wait for the promised improvement in power supplies from NEPA. NEPA’s then-installed capacity was around 6,000 MW, but because of poor maintenance and mismanagement, it generated only 1,600 MW, AFP said, which was far below the national demand. 

Tinubu now has the responsibility to replay his grand vision by ensuring that his government encourages states and even the 774 local governments to build mini-power plants to take care of their immediate needs. The significance of this drive is apart from powering and re-energizing major industrial hubs in order to generate massive jobs and keep our youth busy, we can also electrify and revive thousands of small-scale businesses that have suffered from a prolonged power outage. Our homes both in the major cities and several communities in the countryside can be energized. The impact on our highly mobile, energetic, and entrepreneurial youth can only be imagined. Tinubu needs to borrow from the strides already achieved to light up some industrial areas of the country. 

Geometric Power Limited (GP), a pioneer power project developer in Nigeria, established a power generation facility in Aba, with the intention of providing high-quality electric service to a limited number of large industrial and commercial clients.  Initially, the project consisted of the installation of a 141 MW gas-fired power plant in Phase 1, over 110km of 33 kV and 11kV sub-transmission lines, four new substations, and capacitor banks for distribution of power to the large industrial and commercial consumers that had been receiving power from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). 

Geometric Power and Aba Power secured a 20-year concession from the federal government to supply power exclusively to the Aba industrial city and its surrounding communities and has constructed the Aba Integrated Power Project (“Aba IPP”). The Aba IPP is the first independent and integrated power utility in Nigeria, which comprises a 141 MW gas-fired power plant, a 27km gas pipeline, and a distribution utility, within a ring-fenced distribution network. It is an embedded electricity facility designed to generate and distribute its own electricity. 

The city of Aba in Abia State is an important regional market and the principal commercial center in South Eastern Nigeria with a population of 2.3 million in 2006. Aba is generally referred to as the “Taiwan of Africa” due to the ingenuity of local businessmen, artisans, and craftsmen who are able to use locally available resources to fabricate spare parts and other machinery. Aba is a city with significant commercial and industrial concerns whose need for an adequate and reliable supply of electricity for its complex and growing business environment is paramount.  Aba’s industrial products include paper products, soap, glass products, oil mills, beer, and water bottling, and processed food products, among others.  Small metal and wood fabrication industries are numerous, presenting significant power loads. Before the IPP project, industries and other consumers in Aba depended on expensive diesel generation for a substantial part of their products because of the inadequacy of the power supply from the national grid.

The Ossiomo Power plant built by the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki in Edo State is another. The Obaseki government entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of 55MW with Ossiomo Power and CCETC Clean Energy (CCETC-Ossiomo Power), to boost the electricity market in the state.

Edo State with an estimated population of four million was then getting only a paltry 88 megawatts of electricity which does not meet the rising electricity need for residential and commercial purposes.

The 55MW CCETC-Ossiomo Power Plant located at Ologbo community in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area (LGA) of the state was designed to power and light up government buildings and public utilities, such as hospitals, offices, street lights, Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium as well as other public facilities. It also supplies power to the Edo production center, an industrial hub located along the Sapele road axis of Benin City, where Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ply their trades.

Speaking during the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of the 55MW with Ossiomo Power and CCETC Clean Energy (CCETC-Ossiomo Power), Obaseki said the gas-powered electricity would free up power for other users in the Sapele road axis where the distribution infrastructure of the company passes through.

At the production center, manufacturers engage in the production of nylon products, furniture making, fashion designing, metal fabrication, and waste recycling among others. The Edo State government is already thinking of expanding the capacity of the Ossiomo power plant to power more communities in the state.

Allied to this, is the new law that allows the states to participate in rail transportation within their respective territory. Although interstate rail links are still the exclusive preserve of the federal government, nothing precludes states that are contiguous from partaking in rail partnerships. For instance, the South-west states have toyed with the idea of a railway project that will cover all the eight states in the old Western Region including Edo and Delta States. The O’dua rail project was then muted by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) as a response to mass movements of commuters and goods.

Tinubu should take the gauntlet by encouraging more regional cooperation on rail development. Apart from ensuring that his government builds both the Ibadan-Abuja and Itakpe-Abuja rail connections, it must crown its legacy in the rail sector by constructing the 1,400-kilometer Lagos-Calabar railway to finally link up the west and the eastern parts of the country by rail. That ultimately will be the clincher for his government.

Ibrahim is a Development Expert based in Abuja