[Johnny]

This has to be a joke, right!!

I have often felt that despite our setbacks (poor leadership), the future of Nigeria looks bright. We have very smart people in abundance, and it's only a matter of time before we get the right people in place and the country will see her potential. However, when I read stories like this, I get frightened that Nigeria as a nation is headed in the wrong direction. Running a government with a patchwork of generating sets, no matter how rugged and good the manufacturer may claim them to be is the wrong thing to do. More so, making it the official state policy to power the country with generating sets defies logic. Generating sets are supposed to be used as stop-gap measures for when there is a power failure; making it the official state policy, even as a short term solution is wrong policy. And opening up tenders to the general public to supply the federal government with generator sets is showing that the government is grasping at straws. It has no formulated policy with regards to power supply. The government is seeking solutions in all the wrong places.

The country already is running on generator sets and it hasn't solved the power problem. I don't know of any Nigerian family, at least in the cities that doesn't own a generating set. Businesses are failing due to inadequate power supply or prohibitive cost of operating these generators. Also, the generating sets are polluting our environment from noise, toxic fumes, and in some cases killing our citizens from carbon monoxide poisoning and unintended fire mishaps.

Solution: The government should be looking at real solutions, not stop gap measures that defer the problem to the next administration. The government should constitute a group of well meaning Nigerians with knowledge of the power sector to formulate a sustainable policy on how to build new power plants and repair existing ones. The government should also be open to try new ideas. For instance, the government should strongly consider breaking up PHCN and assist the states in finding ways to setting up individual power plants that feeds into a national grid. I am not advocating for changing our federal system. The intent is to find better ways for the government to deliver basic services to her citizens. Building of new power plants in the states should be a private initiative, but regulated by the state government and overseen by the federal government. There could be multiple power companies in each state to provide for oligopolistic competition. The local private power companies can seek out foreign partners to help set up and run these plants. Once operational, a part of the proceeds that consumers pay in the form light bill can still be remitted back to the states and federal government as taxes. Some of this initiative may already be under way on a small scale in some states, but the government should encourage them in all states. If history should be our guide, the federal government has failed in the building and maintenance of our infrastructure. It hasn’t been able to deliver on electricity supply, telephone services, water supply, and road construction and maintenance. It should concede that it cannot provide these services and let the state governments and private industry be given the authority to do so. This should be a benefit to all.

Johnny