The importance of power to the development of any nation cannot be overemphasised. It is the driver of industrialisation and prosperity. Without power, a nation will continue to languish in the abyss of underdevelopment.
Someday, in the future, whether near or far, genuine chroniclers of our checkered history as a nation would definitely record that a motley crowd of perverse elements held the nation down for no discernible reason. Even at that, a perceived connivance by powerful forces makes the situation all the more sordid. Power or electricity generation has assumed an unfathomable dimension.
The importance of power to the development of any nation cannot be overemphasised. It is the driver of industrialisation and prosperity. Without power, a nation will continue to languish in the abyss of underdevelopment. Only a few nations exemplify the impact of energy insecurity on a country like Nigeria. At the core of this deplorable and pitiful power situation in the country is the incessant collapse of the national grid.
Nigeria’s national grid has collapsed over a hundred times in the last decade. In 2024 alone it collapsed 12 times. It also collapsed in February this year, and the latest blackout happened today, September 10. Successive administrations underscored the importance of stable and affordable electricity but none of them appeared to want to do the tough, onerous but rewarding task of making it a reality.
When the government began the privatisation of the Nigerian power sector in 2013, we were regaled with beautiful tales of how the nation’s electricity challenges would be addressed in the shortest possible time and the perennial darkness, which has become a national symbol of lacklustre leadership, would become a thing of the past. But these turned out to be another unimpressive and perfunctory public rhetoric to raise the hope of the hapless citizenry.
Of course, the move by the government at the time to privatise the power sector to attract investment and improve power supply by transferring generation and distribution assets to private entities was a commendable and laudable one. But as it is with everything in Nigeria, the privatisation agenda was marred by the usual destructive Nigerian factors. The processes of selling critical assets to investors were dogged by cronyism, corruption and patronage, leading to private entities without the capacity, technical know-how and financial resources to secure the distribution and generation infrastructures.
Expectedly, the privatisation largely failed to address the electricity challenges that existed when the government was in control. It fails to deliver stable, reliable electricity due to issues like undercapitalised distributors, government still in charge of transmission, ongoing government subsidies, political interference, and a lack of proper market structure. The Nigerian Senate has declared the privatisation a “total failure”. Even more worrisome is that Nigerians are now paying exorbitant power tariffs with no commensurate improvement in electricity. They are essentially paying more for darkness.
The inability of the government to tackle the incessant national grid collapse and power blackout does not speak well of the nation that is home to the highest population of black people. Successive governments’ inability to provide stable and reliable electricity to Nigerians after over six decades of independence does not portray the nation as one that is ready to step into the modern world. President Tinubu once spoke about turning Nigeria into a one trillion dollar economy, someone needs to tell him that is impossible with the frequent grid collapse and absence of aggressive targeted investment in the power sector.
The Senate is said to be considering a potential revocation of licenses and re-privatisation of distribution companies, to address the ongoing crisis, and that is a fine place to start. Ethiopia just inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with an installed capacity of 5.15 gíga watts. The dam is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and among the 20 largest in the world. If we are to solve our electricity conundrum we may need to look at what our African neighbour has done and get our priorities right.