allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Power Sector Probe And the Anti-Climax to Come (Page 1 of 2)

In what appears to be full on grandstanding and empty on altruism, the famed power sector probe, while opening the eyes of Nigerians to the dangers inherent in the collapse of the energy sector as made manifest by the dismally low level of power generation in Nigeria, may actually be a distraction of sorts, even making the energy situation in Nigeria worse than it should be. This report merely asks the critical question: After weeks of grandstanding, how many power sector thieves have been caught and where; but most importantly, has the probe improved the power situation in the country?

Even Caligula couldn't have been so despised.

But because Nigeria is a polity of clashing interests, where individuals and institutions take flights of fancy, the probe into what went down in the power sector promised so much for Nigerians. More so at a time when Nigerians were groaning under the burden of heavy darkness, whoever was responsible deserved to be lynched.

However, after weeks of showmanship by the Ndudi Godwin Elumelu Committee, what has been the benefit of Nigerians regarding the availability of electricity?

Obasanjo

For starters, Elumelu was one of the staunchest supporters of Speaker Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, during the misappro-priation, mis-application and contract scandal. How he transmuted from an Etteh supporter to become a champion of altruistic legislative engagement should get some commendation from the Nigerian public.

But the truth remains: To what extent has the activities of his committee contributed to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.

To be fair, the job needed to be done: That is, looking into the expenditure pattern in that sector.

But in doing that, it should be with a view to providing for the masses and not playing to the gallery. And in any case, had the House of Representative members who were grandstanding on the matter performed their true oversight functions when the project was being carried out, Nigerians would have been properly guided.

And as is discernible from excerpts from the responses of Olusegun Obasanjo, former president, Atiku Abubakar, former vice president, and Nenadi Usman, former finance minister, errors may have occurred but not in the manner the House Committee attempted to pull wool.

Excerpts from Obasanjo's response to the House Committee, reads:

"May I draw your attention to the letter of 3rd of May received on the 9th of May headed 'Invitation to Appear at the Public Hearing on the Power Sector'. I observed that the letter was not authored or signed by the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Ndudi Godwin Elumelu.

Atiku Abubakar

"The signature is that of one Sahmed. As a matter of comment, I believe that courtesy and decency will suggest that a letter from any Chamber of the National Assembly to me as former President of this country, on a matter of this nature, will be signed by the head of the chamber concerned on behalf of the Committee or the Clerk of the National Assembly or, at the minimum, the Chairman of the Committee itself and not by a third party. For the reason of the way and manner your invitation came as well, I may choose not to appear and merely object to the manner of invitation. Again, I have chosen not to go that way.

"As Africans, we must respect age and authority. It is also a product of birth and breeding in an African culture. I hope members of the Committee will have something to learn from this exercise.

Be that as it may, let me go to the points that will "give an insight and perspective into what" I know and my role in the execution of projects from 1999 to 2007.

'We have to coordinate and harmonise five aspects of the building of generation and evacuation unit in each site - turbine, gas provision, civil works, electrical station and transmission or evacuation. Unless all these are synchronised and brought together, expenditure on four, leaving out one as uncompleted, will still leave out power generation let alone having the power at our homes and factories. No matter what resources you may have, it will take a minimum of three years, if there are no interruptions or disruptions and with hard driving, to complete any one of these units.

Without hard driving and with any disruption, it may take up to five years or more.

If South Africa, with a population less than one-third of Nigerian population, has a power generation of some 40,000MW and yet still only an industrialising country, Nigeria will need close to 100,000MW of power generating capacity to become a serious industrialising country.

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