Adelabu: Nigeria’s Power Problems Result of Inaction of Previous Administrations

•Says power supply rose 27% in one year, subsidy not sustainable 

•Laments incessant vandalism, seek collaboration with security agencies, others

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, yesterday blamed Nigeria’s electricity woes on the ‘actions and inactions’ of previous governments, but said the Bola Tinubu administration was set to turn around the sector with the ongoing wholesale overhaul.

Speaking in Abuja during a visit to his office by the Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMICO) organisation, Adelabu disclosed that the efforts of the current administration has led to a 27 per cent rise in the supply of electricity to Nigerians.

CIMICO comprises several Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and security personnel and government agencies, including the Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Orientation Agency (NOA), fire service, among others.

Adelabu stated that his job at the ministry was to expand energy assets to reduce or completely eliminate energy poverty, both in the urban, semi-urban, and rural communities in Nigeria.

“And we all know that it is much easier to build afresh than to repair. What we have seen in the power sector today is the reflection of the actions and inactions of past administrations. Over 60 years of our existence since independence, we have not done the right thing for the power sector.

“Which is why a nation of 220 million people, we are still running around 5,000 megawatts of power. It is shameful. South Korea of 49 million people has 130,000 megawatts of power. That’s how they had their industries developed.

“If you get this (power) right, it is almost automatic that every other critical sector will be developing. Our markets, our population, they are supposed to be a blessing and strength to us,” the minister stated.

On the need for the appropriate legislation, the minister stated that President Bola Tinubu recently signed into law the Electricity Act, which has taken care of the over-centralisation of power supply.

With the decentralisation of the sector, he stated that sub-national governments can now play in the entire power segments from generation, transmission and distribution and even regulate power sector within their own territory.

“The government will play its role to de-risk it while attracting foreign and local investment. So that Act has settled that, and we have seen that a number of states are now receiving their regulatory autonomy, which we believe will galvanise further development in the industry.

“And we have also seen a lot of investment flow into the sector. Because the problem that we see today is not accidental. It was intentional. The investment in generation, the investment in transmission infrastructure, and the activities, improved activities of the distribution companies. That’s why we can see that there’s some noticeable improvement.

“We’ve been working on the National Integrated Electricity Policy, and Strategic Implementation Plan that will detail what we need to do as a country. That will serve as our bible to know where we are going as a sector,” Adelabu noted.

On electricity pricing, the minister stated that Nigeria cannot afford to continue to subsidise power supply for its citizens.

“I’m entitled to a subsidy. But does the government have enough to fund the promised subsidy? No! So all the promised subsidies have been piled up in the form of debts to the power generating companies, stifling the industry. We are saying, look, we need to start migrating to a cost-reflective tariff.

“We cannot achieve it overnight. But we must start from one point. So we are moving in the right direction, because the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step in the right direction, which is why we migrated just 15 per cent of electricity consumers into this full cost-reflective tariff.

“And that is for  those with commercial infrastructure that can actually supply electricity for over 20 hours. So it must be service-reflective too. At the end of the day, the cost is cheaper than using diesel and petrol generators,” the minister explained.

According to him, even the settlement of energy bills has increased from about 9 per cent to about 40 per cent, with the target being 70 per cent to 75 per cent.

He expressed the belief that if the sector gets the arithmetic of the commercial right in the industry, there will be more investments that will come into the sector.

“We have dilapidated infrastructure, aged infrastructure. Some of these transformers are even older than the people that have been there. Where would the manuals be? So we’ve been working on infrastructure. Our government has a lot of programmes,” he stressed.

He added: “We hit 5,155 megawatts of power on August 9, the highest in three years. We met around 4,000mw, even less than 4,000mw when we resumed. This is just a year. That’s about 27 per cent increase.”

He argued that the only way to sustain the sector was for consumers to begin  to pay for electricity, adding that power theft must also be discouraged.

In his remarks, the leader of the CIMICO team, Mr Adams Otakwu, said the delegation was in the minister’s office because of the importance it attaches to the energy sector, knowing it’s the bedrock of national security.

“As a platform of civil society, we have to appreciate the fact that national security is a collective responsibility, particularly for the non-governmental sector of the civil society.

 “If the power sector doesn’t function optimally, we cannot have our economy run full throttle. There will be sabotage of our economy, and that will pose significant threats to national security. And once there is no power, no jobs, that brings national security threats,” he added.