udeh3:


You spoke well, but as an electrical technologist, hydro-electric power is seasonal. Gas is still the best if the govt are truthful to themselves to remove the bottled neck.

I'm from Delta state. The government knows the problem and also have the solution. Why will a lawyer even held a very professional ministry like power? Nigeria is almost short-circuited by politicians

Godbless Nigeria

realjoker:
You are right bro and Saraki is also right, Disco have been defaulting from paying for the power they purchase from TCN and whenever Power generation goes above 3500MW they will start rejecting loads, the reason is that they have not improve on bill collection, hence, they can't afford to pay for power generated by Gencos in excess of 3500MW, some of this discos lose as much as 40% in expected revenue on their output.

darknetcom:


what is mowe weed..??..is it good....

Adminisher:
Dumb Jonathan sold Nigerian power assets to traders.
Complete local, parochial idiot.wiyjout strategic ability.
Yet people continue to tell lies crediting him with qualities the guy has not even heard of not to talk of possessing. At least in Obj time, privatization was done with some technical depth and process audited by credible international Consultants.

The FG may need to revoke these ownerships even if they are going to be costly. Alternatively, arm twist them to go down into technical partnerships with utility companies overseas.

Businessideas:
What's this man saying? Is it discos that blew up gas pipelines delivering gas to power plants? Why can't people say the truth in their life? The power plants are down because they don't have gas and if no power is generated,how does he expect them to deliver electricity to homes? He should hold the senators from the Niger Delta responsible for not doing enough to stop bombing of gas pipelines in their constituencies.
For the past few months, I am yet to finish the Kilowatts of electricity I loaded on my meter because there's hardly light and I wonder how the discos manage to survive when we their customers have not recharged for months yet someone is still blaming them?
It's not their fault and as a matter of fact,they're more of victims of intense political power play. I support the government's move to move over to hydro power generation since the gas power plant is at the mercy of the miscreants that called themselves militants

ofwest47:
The problem of the power sector transcend the thinking of many commentators on the issue on hand. The long period of military administration in the country was the major cause of the situation we find our selves today in the country. All the then military head of states had no vision as to the need for improved power supply for the future need.
Gowon a former military head of state because of lack of vision for future need said during the oil boom era said in quote " Money is not our problem but how to spend it" and that was when Kainji Dam which plan was started in 1955 by the colonial master to generate 1200 MW and true to form the then political administration of Tawa Balewa was following the original plan until Gowon took over and by 1969 was only able to do 4 Units @ 80 MW per unit. totalling 320 MW instead of 12 Units @ 100 MW per unit as designed by the colonial masters and just about that time Ghana was able to complete Akosombo 1000 MW dam.
Similarly Babangida even did worse by relegating the power sector to category C above Nigerian ports system and that was the era of FORM "M"form M is all just you need to import anything from fly covered meat to tokunboh pants and you can also use form M to fake any form of exportation. The CBN which came under category A was used as capital flight by he Babangida and his cohorts. According to him NEPA and Radio Nigeria on category C are cash generating establishment and can take care of themselves. A strike protest by NEPA in1992 led to the "11jailed NEPA men" when he sentenced 11NEPA Union members to life jail for treason for going on strike.
Sanni Abbacha did similar thing when he was approached over the dwindling Power situation in the country hear him Abbacha , " Quariam no be light be this you are all thieves get away" pointing to a point of light in his office. It will be recalled then that Abuja was never to be load shed irrespective of the amount of load available in the system it was an order not to be flouted then and by 1999 the total load available in the system was less than 1000 MW and between 1999 till date we have not been able to achieve much due to the high level of corruption in the system be it private or non private operators.
People were saying we were not able to move forward because the present minister of power Babatunde Fashola was a lawyer who had no knowledge of electricity, forgetting that the last administration of Good luck Jonathan had two professors of electrical engineering even one of them was a professor of robotic engineering as power ministers one after the other what did they achieve ? Recall in the first republic Mataima Sule was the minister of mines and power he was never an engineer but had the desire to achieve and he really did well before the vision less military administrations took over.
All that is required in this situation is the availability of fund and the desire to perform without involving in corrupt practices. No more no less.

murmee:
Centralising Electricity called Central Power Grid is the major problem of power generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria and until the whole Power System is decentralised, the problem will continue regardless of whoever is the Minister of Power or the amount of money spent to improve the system!

seguno2:


Can you give somebody what he OWNS from the onset?
Think, bro, think.
Before you respond on this point, please research how the regions controlled their own revenue before Nzeogwu's coup and Ironsi's unitary government decree. Then you will understand that 13% is NOTHING.



Yes.
Read our budget annually and tell us why it is always a debate about the benchmark price for oil.
What revenue do you think the 774 LGAs, 36 states and federal government share monthly in Abuja from the Federation Account? Groundnut oil, palm oil or cocoa?
Ask yourself also why Buhari said he would "stabilise the price of oil" during his campaign?

murmee:
What caught my attention is the paragraph where you said you have not exhausted your meter credit in months and you wonder how the discos manage to survive.

My dear, I can tell you for free that the discos survive on Estimated Bills. That is the reason they (Discos) especially Ikeja Disco, do not want to reduce the number of people on Estimated bills by providing prepaid meters. When they can make the majority of Nigerians pay for darkness, why would they want to buy energy from Gencos to supply to you. All Nigerians on Estimated Bills must reject this MENACE by saying enough is enough!!!

nickxtra:
How many household in your area use prepaid meters? If you don't know, check around, you will discover majority of the households are unmetered and they pay outrageous estimated bills where the DISCOs generate huge sums of money. That is the reason the Discos have been unwilling to meter majority of these hapless Nigerians.

Akainzo:


Na wa for una. And if checked now, we would be shocked that you went to school to acquire education.

So Ben Bruce should be a movie producer before he could run SilverBird and Obama should have been a graduate of Political Science to be President. In fact one should be a Chef before he can manage Mr Biggs, and the CEO of Nigerian Bottling Company should be what to manage the company?

Your education should have taught you that there is a difference between MANAGEMENT and shop floor workers, engineers, admins staff, etc!

Businessideas:

Everyone in my neighborhood is on Prepaid meter and that explains why I wondered how do they(discos) now make money when the whole neighborhood is not recharging for months

jpphilips:


Yes we agree, where will you get the money to balkanize TCN? was the TCN not concessioned? why is the concessionaire not investing? those are the real questions.

jpphilips:


Obasanjo's NIPP birth over 13 power plants, that was the highest investment we have ever witnessed in power. The truth is that we don't need to make any power investments, the investors are supposed to do that but when a DISCO can not replace a transformer on your street, then the DISCO has lost it, that is what Saraki is talking about.
Speaking of Robotics prof who came to help us, his name is Barth Nnaji, he knew his onions and his competence was never in doubt, it was he who reasoned that balkanising the sector was the way forward, he did that successfully, that is why you can mention DISCOS, GENCOS and TCN, during the NEPA & PHCN era there was nothing like that it was his idea, brain child and ingenuity.

The moment it was time to privatize the setup was where the nepotism and selfish considerations crept in. Jonathan told us that Nnaji was removed because of conflict of interest, tell me, a Man who by himself built Alaoji power plant, running it perfectly, generating 114MW all by himself, he was the only Nigerian who built a private power plant (IPP) from scratch, how can Jonathan not allow a man with such pedigree to compete rather he preferred EEDC, a conglomerate of shops that have no clue the difference between +ve and -ve to bid, the man left with his integrity intact.
investigate the quality of companies he invited and tell me how we ended up with economic wastes. The man had a great plan with sound vision, if not for Jonathan's corruption, Prof Nnaji would have solved our power challenge. I wish he will consider working for this government again.

By Jonathan's standard, a man who has generated 114MW by himself was not qualified to bid but Emeka offor who has not seen a cable in his life was allowed to buy the whole SE DISCOS and you think God will not punish Jonathan? Where have you heard that a company will bid to buy an asset, when it defaults, the BPE restructures their payment plan, who does that? that was how our power assets were sold, knowing any sane government will not allow that, they tied a huge indemnity on the contract, in the end even a sincere government can not do anything, Jonathan's incompetence handed us darkness for life!!

nickxtra:
The unbundling of the power sector was not the brain or idea of Prof. Barth. It all started from the power sector reform of the Obasanjo administration, which was being gradually implemented from the OBJ, Yar'adua to the Jonathan Administrations. I agree with you that Barth is a man with full knowledge when it comes to electricity issues, but he only midwifed the full unbundling of the power sector.

nickxtra:
TCN was not concessioned, but there was a Technical Partner in name of Manitoba, but when the agreement it had with FG ended, it was not renewed, hence the current structure of TCN.

netflicks:


Now u r exposing your level of illiteracy...let me help u expose yourself the more..first a personal business is different from a public office...if Ben does not hire professionals in broadcasting his business wud av been a flop...initiative and experience are vital to be productive In any position u are given.. If u get business carry am give footballer make he manege am for u.. ."zombie"....

jpphilips:
How do you bring in a technical partner to manage a government owned infrastructure without a concessionaire contract? Explain that to me!!

laudate:


Wow!! You don't say. But I feel there must have been some kind of contract in place. But that contract may have been defective, or heavily skewed in favour of one side. I doubt if a Canadian company like Manitoba would commit time, money, staff & resources to such a venture without some form of a contract, or any written agreement.

jpphilips:
since you have gotten your facts right, then go back to your previous post and edit it!!