Over the years, Nigerian energy supply has been in a near-comatose state, making the power sector unable to provide adequate electricity supply to domestic households and industrial producers. This is despite Nigeria being among owners of the world’s largest deposits of coal, oil, and gas.
The energy supply crisis in Nigeria is complex, stems from a variety of issues, and has been ongoing for decades.
Currently, only 45% of Nigeria’s population is connected to the energy grid whilst power supply difficulties are experienced around 85% of the time and almost nonexistent in certain regions.
At best, the average daily power supply is estimated at four hours, although several days can go by without any power at all.
In a bid to bring to an end the epileptic power supply in Nigeria, the former governor of Anambra and presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, recently embarked on a three-day visit to Egypt.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that On Tuesday, the 14th of June, 2022, Peter Obi informed Nigerians via his Twitter handle of his trip to Egypt, to understudy by what miracle the third biggest economy in Africa (Egypt) after South-Africa and Nigeria moved their power generation from 20,000 Megawatts to over 40,000 megawatts in four years.
Ironically, Nigeria has remained stuck on 4,000 megawatts since Adam.
The candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, opined that Peter Obi’s going to Egypt, to learn about governance or how some of their economic policies helped to turn their country around when it is nine months to the election, was a sign of unpreparedness.
On the part of Jacson Ude, “Peter Obi is in Cairo for the AGM meeting of Afreximbank and not to understudy Egypt’s education, power and Finance Sector.”
It was gathered that Peter Obi had traveled to Bangladesh, Rwanda, Kenya, Benin Republic, China, India, among others, to study aspects of their development and has been availing the country of his findings in his quest to see a better governed Nigeria.
Power supply difficulties cripple the agricultural, industrial, and mining sectors and impede Nigeria’s ongoing economic development.
Most Nigerian businesses and households that can afford to do so run one or more diesel-fueled generators to supplement the intermittent supply.
A Nigerian comedienne, Dr. Helen Paul, had lamented that “Nigeria Is where you fuel generator to run your business and pay the profit to NEPA.”
Since 2005, Nigerian power reforms have focused on privatizing the generator and distribution assets and encouraging private investment in the power sector.
The government continues to control transmission assets whilst making “modest progress” in creating a regulatory environment attractive to foreign investors.
