Prof. Chinedu Nebo
Prof. Chinedu Nebo

THIS was a freedom that was never gotten on a platter of gold but rather it was fought on the pages of the newspaper for several years until 1960 when she was fully granted her autonomy to control her resources all by her self without any foreign domination or interference.
Nigeria is expected to have developed or outgrown certain level of development since its independence.
Our founding fathers such as Albert Macauley, Chief Nnamdi Azikwe, Tafawa Balewa and so on, all of blessed memories craved for our freedom owing to the fact that they believed, we as Nigerians can control our resources without the help of a foreigner.
Government/Administrations have come and gone but yet, the same promises are what ascended into the thrown of power.
Nigeria is blessed with all manner of mineral resources that are capable of catapulting the nation and its inhabitants to a height it could ever dream of but its highly regrettable that these resources are put in the hands of shylock leaders who are not ready to deliver but rather are desperate to destroy the growth and development of the nation in order to enrich themselves.
Nigeria has four different refineries that are lying fallow in different part of the country such as Kano, Enugu, Port Harcourt and in Warri, Delta State.
These are machineries put in placed by our fore-fathers to enable us refine petroleum products of our own rather, out government abandoned them to decay thereby relying on foreign refineries where these products are exported to for refining and later brought back and sold to us at a higher cost, so disheartening a habit which they enjoy.
54 years after independence, Nigeria has not gotten any tangible proof of her independence since 1960 because out roads are still in a worse condition, agriculture has been greatly neglected thereby focusing on petroleum alone.
Our educational sector is very poor due to lack of funding and incessant strike here and there, health sector, still in a state of dilemma. Above all our power sector is suffering from the sickness called epilepsy.
Nigeria has never enjoyed a stable power supply since its independence. Power has always been interrupted. Out of 24 hours of the day, it is extremely difficult for consumers to enjoy 12 hours and at worst state; the light will never appear at all.
The promises of adequate power supply has been a chorus of our political leader but it appears to be tales told by the unskilled or the unlearned people in the society.
Speaking on this light, Nigerians were reassured against that power generation may have improved to 4,000 mega watt in Nigeria going by the latest posting in the facebook page of President Goodluck Jonathan. President Jonathan who traveled from Ethiopia after the African Union meeting to Turkey during wrote on his page that power generation had hit the new level. This was contrary to the earlier remark by officials who gave indication that power generation had improved to 3,800MW.
“We are making progress in the power sector and last Tuesday we hit 4,000MW, the first in 10 years we’ve reached that level. But it’s still not sufficient,” he wrote, “While I don’t want to set a benchmark, what I can say is that we’ll insist on progress monthly. We are not where we need to be, but with the current investment in building the new super Grid and new power stations we are definitely on the way there”.
Nigeria has been facing acute power shortage for many years, a development hat made many industries to close shop.
So many business activities have been paralysed due to irregular supply of electricity.
Where does this problem lies? Is it that our dams are not functioning, or is it that Nigeria lack qualified personnel who have been fully trained to handle the job or better still, is the government lacking the finance to fun electricity supply in the Nation? Or could it be that the fund has been made available but unscrupulous element have diverted the fund for their personal use, thereby hampering the constant flow of power across the nation?
This obnoxious act has devastated both the economic sector, educational sector bringing down a low productivity in the individual sector and in the commercials sector of our society.
The unfortunate aspect of this pervading darkness that has become so rampant in this country is the fact that people still pay for it. At the end of each month BEDC officials goes about distributing bills to tenants and landlords over what they did not consume.
The worst of the situation is the so call prepaid metre that is calculated at extorting people’s money.
The prepaid metre was actually meant to serve a particular purpose of saving the cost of the bills distributed monthly by BEDC officials but unfortunately the users of this metre still pay for what they did not use.
Nigeria has not been able to come up with a better plan in tackling the incessant and uncontrollable interruption of power supply experienced in the nation and hits is a function of the pervading darkness experience everywhere.
Some people have lived in darkness for close to a year.
It however shameful that Nigeria formerly referred to as the giants of Africa is about to get power supply from a neighbouring country Ghana.
Ghana is said to have been ready to export light to Nigeria in order to rescue it from the unbearable darkness covering the nation come 2015. This is highly disheartening because Ghana is a very small country like just a state in Nigerian this state celebrated l0 years of uninterrupted power supply sometimes 2008/2009.
As a result, manufacturing companies in Nigeria are already folding up, to relocate to Ghana and take advantage of the liberal investment incentives there.
Speaking on this issue Agunbiade, chairman House committee on Commerce and Industry said, the implication for the state is high unemployment rate and increase in criminal activities. While attributing the development to constant power outage, he added that “Manufactures in Nigeria are crying over the power situation in the country which is the real bane of our manufacturing sector”.
It therefore pertinent that the Honourable Minister of Power Prof. Chinedu Nebo should come up with a stringent measure in curbing this menace that have paralysed economic and business activities across the nation were it is too late. Because there is practically no organization or society that does not deal with light and so the minister should wake up to his task of making the power sector to function in its capacity Justas it is experienced in the developed countries.