For over two decades no Nigeria has been grappling with inadequate and epileptic power supply. Successive administrations in the country have made it a cardinal programme to improve power generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria, but without any remarkable success. Since I999 when the country returned to democratic rule trillions of’ Naira have been allocated to the power sector, but it has not improve the generating capacity, which has been fluctuating between 2, 500-4, 000 mega watts.
Apart from the obvious high rate of corruption in the power sector, other factors, such as obsolete equipment, irregular supply of gas, vandalism of cables along transmission lines, among others constitute problems to the effectives and efficiency of power generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria.
Consequently, electricity consumers in Nigeria. Whether domestic, commercial or industrial users ha’ e resorted to the use of generating sets, with its attendant environmental and health hazards, coupled with scarcity of petroleum product to operate the generating sets on regular basis.
This ugly situation has adversely affected social and economic activities in the country to the extent that many small, medium and large scale industries are folding up due to high cost of operation. This is one reason why the rate of’ unemployment is always on the increase in Nigeria. It is also responsible or the reduction in the production capacity of many industries in Nigeria. It is also the reason why Nigeria export potential are low, and Nigeria depend on imported goods to survive, thereby reducing the Gross domestic Product GDP and creating inflation in the economy due to overdependence on imported products such as generating sets, refined petroleum product, used vehicles and electronics, building and manufacturing materials, furnitures, as well as other consumable and household equipment.
However, Nigeria has high potential to harness energy from both renewable able and non—renewable resources such as solar energy coal, wind, hydro, natural gas, biomass energy, among others. In many countries of the odd they are diversifying their energy sources. Renewable and non—renewable energies technologies are been used to address energy shortage and expand the range of services, in Nigeria today, it is obvious that the potential in Natural gas has not been fully tapped. with an estimated 2 billion metric tonnes of natural gas, Nigeria could be able to ensure constant electricity supply if adequately Instead, this natural gas is been flared daily in the Niger Delta, causing health hazard through the pollution of the atmosphere.
It is rather surprising that despite the abundance of energy resources in Nigeria, the country is in short supply of electricity. No thanks to the corrupt and vision less leaders of our time.
In Nigeria, only 40% of the population of over 160 million people have access to electricity. Whereas Nigeria require a minimum of 140, 000 mega watts of electricity to stabilize, it currently can only generate between 3, 500 and 4, 000 mega watts, which is grossly inadequate to meet domestic and industrial purposes.
At this point, it must be emphasized that to achieve the goal of development, a strong energy sector is essential. Energy and power is fundamental to human activities, as humans depend largely on one form of energy or the other to survive. Power is a very important catalyst for economic, industrial and social development of any nation.
Without improving access to affordable and constant power supply, sustainable development and improved living standard in Nigeria would be difficult to achieve. This is so because energy and power improves the we1l—being of the people, reduces poverty, increases productivity boosts economy reduces cost of production and purchase of goods.
It is however gratifying to note that the Federal Government in 2003 approved the National Policy to articulate the sustainable explanation and utilization of all viable energy resources. The policy apart from providing for private sector participation also seeks to develop, promote and harness the renewable and non—renewable energy resources in the country, including biomass energy resources.
Be that as it may, since the enactment of the policy twelve years ago, little or no remarkable breakthrough has been recorded, and it has not added or increase the amount of energy or power generation in the country.
This is the time for the Federal Government to revisit the energy crisis in Nigeria with a view of putting materials, men and resources together to meaningfully harness both renewable and non—renewable energy resources in the country to improve power generation and supply in Nigeria.
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