[size=14pt]Jonathan to eliminate power outage by 2012[/size]
Headlines Aug 27, 2010 Share | *Approves new electricity tariff
*PHCN workers suspend strike

By Clara Nwachukwu &Yemie Adeoye

LAGOS—PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said, yesterday, he planned to eliminate constant power outage in the country by 2012 through the introduction of ‘revolutionary’ policies to tackle the plethora of challenges bedeviling the sector.

The president’s aspiration was unveiled in Lagos at the launch of the Power Sector Road Map, the execution of which he said, would be fast- tracked to create numerous employment opportunities, while also revamping the nation’s ailing economy.


PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan during his arrival in Lagos
President Jonathan who said: “We need a revolution in the power sector,” also stated that his administration had identified most of the bottlenecks impeding efficient and effective electricity supply in the country.

He noted: “By God’s grace, by December 2012, Nigeria will not only celebrate one day of uninterrupted electricity supply but we would celebrate one week, one month and so on of uninterrupted electricity supply.”

President Jonathan, however, believed that this will only be possible through the support of the various stakeholders, who are currently being engaged in constructive discussions on sustainable ways out of the current power quagmire.

New policies
Parts of the revolutionary polices the President enunciated include:

*The construction of what he described as “a super transmission network of 7000 Kilovolts, the procurement and design will commence next year.” This is in acknowledgement of the current weakness in electricity infrastructure, which frustrates the evacuation of electricity from the plants to the homes of Nigerians through the national grid.

*Review of current tariff structure on the grounds that Nigeria’s current structure is the lowest and needs to be reviewed to encourage fresh investments, while not unmindful of the purchasing power of the masses

[size=14pt]*Generation of additional 5000mega watts within the next three years from new and existing independent power plants

*Active and serious exploitation of hydro, nuclear and coal power, especially coal in states like Gombe, Enugu, Kogi and Benue states in the next two years, which will be more private-sector driven

*Privatization of generation and distribution, while government retains transmission for strategic reasons[/size]

*Constitution of two presidential committees on power and the reconstitution of the board and membership of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, whose names have been forwarded to the National Assembly for approval

Power challenges
The president said his assessment of the issues affecting the sector over the past few years, revealed that “the sector’s challenge to effective electricity delivery in Nigeria include the absence of sustained policies and deliberately deploying long term power development strategy, the absence of and low implementation of reforms to fast track all issues pertaining to the power sector.”

The President who was flanked by ministers, advisers and state governors, said Government was convinced that “it is only by constructively engaging the private sector as partners in this journey of national transformation that we can be assured of success.”


President Jonathan with Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola at the event
He added that constant power outages are perhaps the greatest paradox of life in Nigeria, which despite producing more than two million barrels per day of crude oil, relied on diesel generators to power everything from phone chargers to luxury hotels.

Powerful vested interests
World Bank country director, Onno Ruhl, who noted that successive governments had tried to fix the power problems, stressed that powerful vested interests such as billionaire tycoons who import diesel and generators, and the chronic mismanagement of state-run utilities frustrated progress in the sector.

He said: “This roadmap brings us to a point where we finally have a realistic plan that is actually technically, commercially sound, in terms of the role of the private sector, the role of government. The question is, will all the partners behind it actually rally around it and implement it … If it gets implemented, it will deliver results.”

Ruhl noted that fighting the graft and mismanagement that had hobbled the sector will be more of a political test than laying out plans, adding that in the challenges to reform listed by ministers and officials, the issue of corruption was conspicuous by its absence.

Finance Minister, Olusegun Aganga, said: “If there is anything that unites Nigerians, it is a desire for power, electricity,” adding that his ministry was focused on creating the right environment to attract investment as quickly as possible.

He said the nation had the world’s seventh_largest natural gas reserves and planned to use them as the source for improving power supply.

Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison_Madueke, said gas supply to the power sector was already at an all_time high but estimated that demand from domestic energy producers would rise to 3 billion cubic feet per day by 2015 from around 800 million now.

She said that President Jonathan had already announced plans for a $3.5 billion transmission “supergrid” to be jointly financed with the private sector, while the privatisation agency had said it was seeking core investors for 11 state_run electricity distribution firms.


Bomb Disposal squad at the airport during Jonathan's visit to Lagos yesterday.
Allison-Madueke said some of the firms in highly populated and relatively developed areas such as Lagos were likely to attract significant interest from foreign investors, potentially triggering bidding wars, adding that others in less-developed areas and with greater infrastructure challenges may be less attractive.

$12bn investment in energy, transportation
In another development, Vice President Namadi Sambo said the Federal Government has invested $12 billion in tackling the problem of power supply and the resuscitation of the nation’s rail transportation system.

Sambo who was addressing members of the Nigerian community in Bujumbura, shortly after the inauguration of President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was doing everything within its power to reduce the problem of poverty in the country.

Vice President Sambo said: “The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is doing everything to ensure that we drive out poverty from Nigeria, and also transform our society and improve our economy,” adding that the emphasis of the government was to address the power supply problem in the country decisively.

He said: “We are doing a lot in the real sector, we are doing a lot in the power sector to ensure that power supply is being addressed with all the seriousness it deserves. The government is investing over $10 billion in the generation, transmission and distribution of power so as to attract direct foreign investors in the sector.”

The Vice President stated that government would continue to give emphasis on medium and large power plants as well as coal power plants for generation of electricity supply in country. Stressing that the government was putting a lot of efforts in developing our transport system, Sambo said: “Our old railway system is now brought back to use and new railway is being built.  Over N2 billion is being invested in this area.”

Earlier, the Head of Nigerian Mission in Burundi, Mr. Sheidu Momoh, had said that the few Nigerians residing in the country had been contributing positively to the development of the country. He called on the Federal Government to take advantage of the return of peace in Burundi to acquire permanent structures for the Nigerian Embassy in the country.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/08/27/jonathan-to-eliminate-power-outage-by-2012/

Jonathan arriving.


Security was tight.


President Jonathan and Fashola.

*Active and serious exploitation of hydro, nuclear and coal power, especially coal in states like Gombe, Enugu, Kogi and Benue states in the next two years, which will be more private-sector driven

Highly interesting. It looks like no stone will be unturned.

Frankly, Jonathan's smile always disarms me; I don't know why. lol.

Beaf is that you standing behind him? lol.

Tell that bomb squad guy that his feet are vulnerable to mere dog attack.

Onlytruth:

Frankly, Jonathan's smile always disarms me; I don't know why. lol.

Beaf is that you standing behind him? lol.

Tell that bomb squad guy that his feet are vulnerable to mere dog attack.

That guy? The dude is really fearful, no smiling and he is like 7 feet tall!
As for the bomb squad guy, you can see that his vital "instrument" is very heavily protected, I'm sure he wouldn't care too much about losing one or two toes compared to losing his todger.

it's almost certain, tariffs are going to go up, for the worldbank to be willing to drop money. . .well they're making all the right noises sha

_{it'll soon be time to start job-hunting}

netotse:

it's almost certain, tariffs are going to go up, for the worldbank to be willing to drop money. . .well they're making all the right noises sha

it'll soon be time to start job-hunting

smart talk.

They have once again shifted it 2 2012. . .poor man don hear am

3 years will be hear soon . . . so eyes are watching

before before dem tell us say na 2010, now 2010 don show e don shift go 2012


Sound sultan: "shey na today, wey we dey wait, go buy candle, go buy candle."

you see the problem has never been the idea but the hoodlums and pilferers we have sitting behind the desk.

I laugh when i hear nigerians asking where is their pomised MegaWatts of power, It is the jeeps we see in abuja, dem dey drive am, lol

Lol!!! I knew he will not be different from other politicians. What happened to the initial state of emergency declared on power sector? What happened to the initial gara gara of making himself the power minister? I wonder why some Nigerians can still b deceived into believing that any PDP Government can give us steady power even in 2012 , if not their initial way of holding on to power. OBJ spent 8years in office, are we to believe he lacked the capacity to rectify Nigerian power problem? 4 years of yaradua is coming to an end under PDP yet there is less or nothing done to rectify the power problem. Now they are giving us another 2years of hope and their mugus are already buying this.

In the first place who told Jonathan he will be there in 2012?

princekevo:

Lol!!! I knew he will not be different from other politicians. What happened to the initial state of emergency declared on power sector? What happened to the initial gara gara of making himself the power minister? I wonder why some Nigerians can still b deceived into believing that any PDP Government can give us steady power even in 2012 , if not their initial way of holding on to power. OBJ spent 8years in office, are we to believe he lacked the capacity to rectify Nigerian power problem? 4 years of yaradua is coming to an end under PDP yet there is less or nothing done to rectify the power problem. Now they are giving us another 2years of hope and their mugus are already buying this.

In the first place who told Jonathan he will be there in 2012?

To some people GEJ should be blamed for Yar Adua's errors. Thats a bit dumb.

Beaf:

To some people GEJ should be blamed for Yar Adua's errors. Thats a bit dumb.

Lol!!! this is very funny man, So we can argue and reason that GEJ has the right to context for 2011 in completion of 8years mandate of Yaradua Government, but can not share the blames of the same government he was the number 2 man. Man, I have no problem with Jonathan as an individual, but i have problem with the party and their policies that has cost us a lot, but nothing to show for it. Jonathan was and is part of it and now no 1man of the same government why should he not share part of the blame? I think we are still on NL, as long PDP is concern, be it GEJ or an angel who emerges in 2011, we shall still come back here in the next 4 years arguing about power in Nigeria. Write it down somewhere.

Jst 8years of Bush was enough for Americans to say no to Republicans and their policies that drove their economy into the present mess. Here we are after 11-12years we are still hoping and believing that a Messiah can still come out of PDP. How ridiculous is our thought? If we need any change in that nation then we need to change the way we think.

Anyone who believes this crap is a crackhead. Jonathan does not have the best interest of Nigerians at heart. When we get a president who is serious about eliminating power failure in Nigeria we will know. He has been in power since last year but all he has done is talk ,talk ,talk.

I can turn around Nigeria’s power problem in 60 days without even talking. This Jonathan guy is a joke ,i wonder how he became a university lecturer. Then again our education system is now one of the worst in Africa so i am not surprised. As for those of you who are supporting Jonathan because he is from your tribe. Look deep down in your soul and ask yourself what this guy has already done.

It is high time we lose the "NEGRO" mentality and start thinking like sensible human beings for a change. How can we be supporting a guy who has done nothing but steal since he has been in politics. Nigerians you are a lost nation, Kenya, Angola, Seychelles and Ghana are leaving us behind at a fast pace.

Think about the future generation. Some of you blame dokpesi of AIT for leading Babangida's campaign but you are all hypocrites because you support Jonathan who is not different from babangida. We need young leaders not ill experienced old cargos. For your information banbangid'a is an American puppet and that is why NOBAMA is backing him. Those of you from NDD who are foolish enough to back this clown will be licking your wounds in a few yew years to come.

I on my own part have given up on Nigerian politics, i know the only way we are going to be free is through violence. Heads need to roll for these politicians to grow a conscience.If I have the funding and the manpower ,I will not hesitate to take out the president ,babangida and their other corrupt cronies. Look at countries like Serbia ,Montenegro ,south Africa, they fought for their country with blood and tears.

I am not advocating for a civil war, I am advocating for a full scale revolution. All the countries that has ever had a revolution never had the number of people we have in Nigeria. There is power in numbers, if we Nigerians collectively were to down tools and take to the street demanding for all this politicians to leave , they will leave. But we have not even made any serious effort towards that.If i were to ask you all to join me to march to aso rock ,how many of you will join me?100 million people vs about 100 troops ,you do the maths.

I see people on this forum who have the chop make I chop mentality and it just sickens me because these people have inferiority complex. If we work together to build our nation, there will be no need for chop make i chop situation because everyone will be employed and earning a good salary. We lack discipline as a people and our image is totally Shxt.Dora Akinluyi who says she is rebranding Nigeria is as ignorant as the kak that comes out of my behind. How can you rebrand a nation when you don’t even have an image rebranding website? In this day and age ,a nation without a website is faceless. People want to see what our country looks like before they make up their minds to obtain a visa and visit. I mean if you Google countries like Sa, AUS, Fiji ,USA ,Uk  even Samoa ,you will find tons of government websites ,local hotel website with pictures of what the country and it’s people look like. Google Nigeria and you will realize that Jonathan’s office does not even have a website.

This is a man people are saying is intelligent ,how is he intelligent when he can not even float a simple government website for the federal republic of Nigeria. Even Ghana has a government website which is updated daily. Shame on Nigeria , shame on Jonathan and shame on you Nigerians who are still slaves in your minds. Follow follow because of small change they put in your pocket to buy bread. My heart bleeds for my country. On this forum ,I am hard pressed to find sensible honest Nigerians because 99% of the comments on Nairaland just reflect a nation of idiots who cannot even differentiate between right and wrong! When i was young i thought i belonged to a nation of intellectuals but that belief is fast fading as i have now seen the true image of the average Nigerian.Even the so called educated and informed ones are silly.

Anybody who believe's this will believe anything.

mikeansy:

Anybody who believe's this will believe anything.

You should know better Mikeansy. Truth is, the simple act of privatising the power sector, whether it is done by Abacha or by Jonathan or by the worst possible president Nigeria can have, would surely go a long way in solving the power problem. I don't think we could eliminate it by 2012, but definitely this is a great step in the right direction.

And I think Jonathan should be given credit for doing in barely 3months what OBJ tried to do in 8 years and what Yar Adua failed to even try in his 3years as president. Jonathan should be commended big time for this. It takes a lot of balls to do what he has just done.

@Papabrowne

You should know better Mikeansy. Truth is, the simple act of privatising the power sector, whether it is done by Abacha or by Jonathan or by the worst possible president Nigeria can have, would surely go a long way in solving the power problem. I don't think we could eliminate it by 2012, but definitely this is a great step in the right direction.

At least on this one we both agree that the 2012 date is simply not realistic and supports my argument that anyone who believes this claim will believe anything.

And I think Jonathan should be given credit for doing in barely 3months what OBJ tried to do in 8 years and what Yar Adua failed to even try in his 3years as president. Jonathan should be commended big time for this. It takes a lot of balls to do what he has just done.

1. OBJ did not think selling off NEPA or PHCN was the way to go that is why he did not do it. So the suggestion that Jonathan achieved in 3 months what OBJ failed to achieve in 8years is not very accurate.

2. Announcing the sale of PHCN is the easy bit. But there are a whole lot of infrastructures that Private Businesses can not provide for Nigeria which the Government has to first provide before the sale of PHCN can mean anything. As we speak there is no reason to believe all of them infrastructures will be available by 2012.

3. If there is any business out there mad enough to take on Generating power in Nigeria from any means they could find, installing power grids and networks to distribute power from the Station to the various substations in various parts of Nigeria, before being able to invest in electricity distribution networks to take the electricity to end users at home, and even installing proof systems of metering so that folks don't game the system and it becomes viable for business. It will be so expensive that Nigerians can not even afford electricity. The whole purpose becomes defeated.

So selling of PHCN is the easy bit. The whole 2012 targets makes you wonder how much careful planning has gone into this 2012 date

I dont believe it- if IBB had said it or anyone else this beaf guy would question it and not even post it.

b/w-

yeah, i'm pretty sure johnathan was in the administration blathering about vision 2020

anyway, its election season, not so? tis the time for politicians to tell us they will transform nigeria into dubai and all that rot

I don't believe him!

sbeezy8:

I dont believe it- if IBB had said it or anyone else this beaf guy would question it and not even post it.

b/w-

That is funny!
IBB's only promise is zoning.

Jonathan has achieved a lot in the power sector. When NEPA people start going on strike, you know something good is happening!

It sounds veryfamiliar, big promises but very little on the realisation front.
The same old music and drum beats of the last wasted 50 years.
He should eliminate IBB and his fellow northern musketeers first before his dream of eliminating power.

Deleted

@beaf
have you taken a look at the power roadmap? http://www.nigeriapowerreform.org/downloads/
it makes sense o. . .i cant lie

netotse:

@beaf
have you taken a look at the power roadmap? http://www.nigeriapowerreform.org/downloads/
it makes sense o. . .i cant lie

No. I didn't even know such a website existed! Thanks for that, I'm getting both documents, but its a lot of reading sha!

The situation is improving.

pishaun

1 year 6 months later . . . .

Dis Guy: pishaun

L̳̿Ö̤̣̇☺ː̗̀(=)))ː̖́☺Ö̤̣̇L.

Kobojunkie: 1 year 6 months later . . . .

We are only on March, it will happen before December by luck.

Jonathan made the promise not PDP, it's the reason many voted for Jonathan and not PDP, He is a lucky man, his luck will make it happen.

Have Faith in GEJ's Fresh Air and GEJ's Transformation Agenda.

OAM4J:
We are only on March, it will happen before December by luck.
Jonathan made the promise not PDP, it's the reason many voted for Jonathan and not PDP, He is a lucky man, his luck will make it happen.
Have Faith in GEJ's Fresh Air and GEJ's Transformation Agenda.

I don't believe in luck, and I don't believe in anyone's agenda. This is not about Jonathan, but after Nigeria, and the future of the individuals and the Nation as a whole.
It has been about 24 months since we started this new match towards solving the very same problem we have been struggling with since the 1970s. . . tally all we have spent in that 24 month period, measure it against the goals set and the actual deadlines we have managed to meet since then,along with the many changes we have had to make so far, and you get the sense that we are likely not going to hit that December 2012 milestone. Even worse, it seems more and more that we may not have the finances to accomplish much of what was proposed(if we take the news from the CBN and finance minister seriously).

It does not matter who is running the show as it is clear that after elections, there seems no going back in Nigeria. What I am more concerned about is the costs, and how much we have left should we fail, after yet another try at this.