If this is the case then what did they(THE LAST GOVT) spend the 10 or 16 billion dollars on?This is a huge joke as has been the case over the years in Nigeria. Instead of yaradua investigating what the last govt did on some sectors,notably power,they,re shying away from telling the nation what,s going on.The last couple of days I read that yaradua see,s obansajo as his leader which ultimately sculpers our fight to see him being investigated for some mismanagement of the past govt.It,s clear that there,s so much injustice taking place down there and the resultant effects on everyone,s daily life,it,s affecting social, economic, political, sport, health and all that make,s a country funtion nomally.Let,s stop this waste of our and others time, life, opportunities.

Some of the facts about the problems of the power shortage in the country are finally coming out. All installed 10 stations in the country are operating at about 30% capacity except Okpai station commissioned last year operating at 90% capacity. Furthermore, the total installed capacity is 6000MW as opposed to 8000MW required capacity so that even if all stations are operating at full capacity of 6000MW the country will still be experiencing brown out. However, I disagree with the estimate capacity of 8000MW required by a country of over 120m people. It is too low if you can imagine that Kuwait and Qatar with a population of a very small fraction of Nigeria's has over 5000MW of just additional power installed by GE. Other outstanding complaints concern the cost of installed plants and also privatization of the power plant sector. The power plant is a very capital intensive project but it is a bitter fact that without good supply of electricity the country cannot develop. As far as privatization is concerned, those who were following the various jugglings made by the former administration found out that after trying several alternatives arrived at privatization as probably the optimum solution. We know that the problem with running a corporation by the government in Nigeria is that you have to satisfy the ethnic representation of the management even when you know that it may require plugging the round hole with square pegg. This situation could be avoided by privatization where the country demands high efficiency from the operating company. However, what is required now is for the government to first do everything posibble to get all the 10 stations running at the design capacity and go back to the drawing board to plan for further extra power plants installations. The government should not overlook the fact that there is immense supply of coal in the country and it will be wise to install some coal-fired plants near the coal mines.

We as a nation must embrace change.