Electricity, Myth or Reality - Letter to the President.

Mr. President, I would like to thank you for the updates you provide on you Facebook wall. I have major concerns with the power issue in Nigeria. I am sure every other well meaning Nigerian has this same problem. It is a shame that at 50 years, in the year 2010, as the 6th largest producer of crude, that we still talk about issues of power.

We are aware that this has been a result of decay and lack of concern from all previous administrations of this country. As the Head of Government and the Minister of Power, it will be fair for us to transfer our frustrations to you.

While power is just one of the many issues we have facing us today, (Education, Healthcare and Agriculture are also of serious concern) the importance of this cannot be overemphasized. Power is the backbone of any modern society.

One question we all ask is, can PHCN be any different from Nigeria Airways, NITEL, NNPC and the rest of the other state own institutions? Trying so hard and putting so much into PHCN, might just be as bad as trying to generate electricity from a broken dam. I doubt very much if anything will come out of PHCN. It is time that we stop deceiving ourselves and wasting the time of the people. Every sector of the economy is riddled with such lack of care or concern. There is never any improvement or advancement in most if not all sectors.

Does the government have any genuine plan for the private sector to come into all aspects of power? Generation, Transmission and Distribution. Should government be involved in this business, or should it just regulate the playing field? It tried this with NITEL and MTEL, all of which eventually went under. Too many people make too much money from state owned institutions that the thought of this stream of cash drying up will not be tolerated at all costs. Not to talk of the fact that finical crimes go largely unpunished.

COAL
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the world today. Nigeria's coal reserves are large, over 2 billion metric tonnes, of which 650 million tonnes are proven. Our low-sulphur coal has been of interest to the international communities. I strongly believe that we need to explore the option of utilizing this large coal deposit for power generation. If we do not, I wonder what we intend to do with all this coal.

I am aware that carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount from natural gas, but this does not in any way mean we should look away from coal. The USA still produces 50% of its electricity from coal and I am sure advancement in technology will give us a way of making the emissions less toxic.

Nigeria is not ready for gas. There have have too much talk and no positive outcome in the use of gas for power generation. While we continue to sort out the issues surrounding gas, who says we cannot exploit coal.

Our dependence on oil and gas has been a major issue to our nation. It has crippled a lot of other sectors, Agriculture and other natural resources especially. We continuously have refused to learn and we have not moved forward in anyway visible. Too many committees have been set up with no results. The next 5 years may not even see any visible change at the rate we are going.

Everyone comes in advising government to do this and that. What the citizens want to see is light at the flick of a switch and he/she wants this 24 hours of the day and all year round.

Is this something we will ever see? Do we need to employ magicians before we can have electricity, or do we have to just get some other country to come do it for us since it is clear we are not ready to work.

Mr. President, I want to believe that you will keep to you words and promise that you will deal with the issue of electricity, but I can assure you that it is a difficult battle and would require everything you have got. We have sunk so far into this abyss that the talk of steady power is just a mirage. There is no way we can advance as a country without electricity. No one will want to invest in a society as this, small businesses cannot grow, people cannot live comfortably at home, local manufactures cannot compete against foreign cheaper products.

It is either all or nothing.