allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Solving Electricity Problem in Abuja is Imperative

As the FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, seeks ways of ensuring that residents of the capital city enjoy uninterrupted power supply, LEADERSHIP's IBRAHIM BIU x-rays the possibilities against the backdrop of failures by past governments to address the problem.

Energy is the wheel of any human endeavour. The influx of people into the Federal Capital Territory, for one reason or the other, has reached a very high proportion such that almost all facilities and services have been seriously overstretched to their limits.

More than three quarters of Abuja residents, especially those living in the cities and satellite towns are professionals or career people engaged in one trade or the other. While some of them are involved in selling and buying, others are printers, contractors, office workers, artisans, and those engaged in providing various services to those who want them. All the categories of people mentioned above need electricity to carry out their assignments.

In other words, most of the Abuja residents cannot do without electricity. And when electricity is not available they rely on generating sets as an alternative. This, however, comes with its own problems, especially the high cost of diesel or petrol. Diesel now costs about N100.00 per litre while petrol is bought for between N70.00 per litre and N500.00 per gallon in the black market. Therefore, businessmen and other traders who produce services, find it very difficult to meet their production costs let alone make profit. The only alternative open to such people to make a small profit is to increase the cost of their services and this is always transferred to the common man who usually bears the burden of such situation occassioned by lack of electricity.

In addition to this, office workers also experience these difficulties in discharging their assignments. Moreover, it is difficult to get good drinking water where there is no electricity.

Therefore, the importance of electricity to Abuja cannot be over-emphasised. It is against this background that the recent decision by the FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, to enter into an agreement with a German company to generate about 1000 megawatts of electricity to Abuja is commendable. Though, signing the contract was an important event, as it is usual with Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, it was quietly held even as such an action is capable of affecting the economic fortunes of the entire FCT in a positive way.

The minister's decision is a welcome one. No doubt, millions of Abuja residents will heave a deep sigh of relief as a result of this good news. This is because they usually spend their days without power supply for hours and in some cases days.

The electricity situation is pathetic. It is because of this poor situation that the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, adopted a short- term measure to deal with it. In 2003, Chief Obasanjo established three electricity generating centres at Apo, Wuse and Katampe to provide electricity to the villa, central business district, Maitama, Wuse and Wuse II areas.

However, the Dr. Aliyu Modibbo arrangement is a different initiative. It is a long term one which is most preferred because it will benefit the people more and also last much longer. Under the agreement which will involve generating electricity at the Gwagwalada Industrial area for the next 24 months, the German company will produce the experts to man or supervise the project for the next few years. The proposed 1000 Megawatts is intended to complement whatever FCT is currently receiving from the national grid.

Though the three electricity sub-stations are still on ground, the electricity demand for the Abuja city centre remains unmet as electricity is supplied on rotational basis to residents. Some areas have complained that only huge bills are given to them monthly instead of the much needed electricity.

These areas include Lugbe, Alaita, Pyakassa, Nyanya, Karu, Kubwa, Dutse Alhaji, Jikwoyi, Jabi, Gwagwa, Karmo, Jiwa, Dei-Dei, Idu industrial areas, Kado village and other villages located along the expressway to the Abuja-Kaduna road. People in these towns have complained that frequent power outages have led to the perpetration of some unholy activities by hoodlums under the cover of darkness.

More worrisome is the fact that many residents are not able to store their food items in their refrigerators or even enjoy electricity supply for hours during the day or even at nights. No doubt, lack of electricity supply has increased the widespread criminal activities in some areas.

Apart from the fact that large quantities of food items stored in fridges and refrigerators are often destroyed, leading to loss of millions of naira monthly or even weekly the frequent outage of electricity to some areas, usually lead to the destruction of electrical appliances with its concomitant heavy losses.

Similarly, many businessmen and industrialists, complain daily about the huge amount of money usually spent on buying generators and the diesel or petrol to power the generators.

Where there are no adequate health facilities people will resort to self-help initiatives: where there are no houses people will build shanties or make-shift houses. Where there is no electricity, people will use old method of providing light like lanterns and candles with all its hazards.

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