Toying with Nigeria’s electricity grid

Bart Nnaji, the erstwhile minister of power and world-class engineering professor, spoke at the June 15-17, 2015 West African conference on electricity development at Eko Hotel in Lagos and advised that the Federal Government discontinue interference in the management of the nation’s electricity grid. His advice was given prominent attention in the national media the following day. Immediately vested interests went to work. They have been responding under all manner of disguises. One of the strategies is the hiring of unemployed pen-pushers to discredit the advice entirely. They advocate government’s continued management of the country’s transmission infrastructure. One of their articles being published in different newspapers is entitled “Manitoba: To keep or put away?” under the pseudonym of Cosmas Elendu, purportedly writing from Nnaji’s home state of Enugu.

Immediately Nnaji left public office in August 2012, self-serving politicians in The Presidency and other buccaneers cornered the resources of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and have ever since been having a field day, unchallenged. Nnaji left the TCN with board membership of seven technocrats, but the membership has now ballooned to an unbelievable 27! There is now a culture of squandermania. TCN is in a mess. It has had three chief executives and two board chairmen in the last two years, a manifestation of gross instability. Of course, the greatest casualty of all this chaos is the Nigerian people. The TCN cannot wheel a mere 5,000MW, yet the country is aspiring to achieve 40,000MW in 2020, so as to be at the level which South Africa achieved decades ago. Nigeria’s transmission network is old, weak, poorly maintained and, therefore, collapses easily. The result is very poor electricity supply across the country. The budgetary provision for the TCN this year is a paltry N1 billion.

The situation is far worse. Nnaji’s proposed 765kv circuit super-grid has since been forgotten on account of principally lack of funds. Our current network of 132kv and 330kv lines is radial in nature. This means that once there is a disruption on any transmission line all the people in the vast area will be without electricity. But if it had been a full-circuit network, only the small area affected would be isolated. In other words, a full-circuit network provides an alternative line or backup. It is a pity that there are no funds to pursue the full-circuit network development agenda, yet entrenched interests insist on absolute government control.

Instead of seeking ways to effectively grapple with the severe challenges confronting the national grid, vested interests in the power sector are busy sponsoring a campaign against changes in the system. They lace their campaign with disinformation, which is worse than misinformation. Misinformation occurs when someone innocently gives out untrue information. Disinformation, on the other hand, takes place when false and misleading information is deliberately pushed out in the public space with a view to beguiling or deceiving the people. Take the article by the person writing under the false name of Cosmas Elendu from Enugu. It claims that Manitoba Hydro International of Canada, which in 2012 won a contract to manage Nigeria’s transmission network for $23m for three years, is a small provincial company which specializes in hydro-power generation.

This disingenuous claim is akin to the allegation by some top officials in Jonathan’s Presidency in 2012, immediately Nnaji resigned on principle, that Manitoba was Nnaji’s personal company in the United States! Jonathan consequently announced the cancellation of the management contract of the nation’s transmission infrastructure. The government was forced to reverse itself only when the international community led by Hillary Clinton, then the American Secretary of State, cried blue murder over the government’s total contempt for the sanctity of contracts. Still, someone from Otueke, Jonathan’s hometown in Bayelsa State, was dispatched to the company’s headquarters to bring documentary evidence showing Nnaji’s ownership of the firm.

The truth is that Manitoba Hydro International is an organization owned wholly by the government of the Province (or State) of Manitoba in Canada. It was established in 1985 and operates in 75 countries. It has five divisions, namely, Manitoba Hydro International Utility Services, Manitoba HVDC Research Centre, Manitoba Hydro Telecom and Manitoba Hydro International Maintenance Services, in addition to Manitoba Insular Engineering and Testing Services. It is richer than some African countries.

The vested interests in the Nigerian power sector have been using Canadian government’s ownership of Manitoba Hydro International to rationalize their argument for continued government control or management of TCN. They are clever by half. Government ownership works only in societies where the state is disciplined. Ethiopian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Statoil of Norway, Emirates of UAE, Petronas of Malaysia, Petrobras of Brazil, etc are all state-owned enterprises, but they are world-class businesses. In Nigeria, government-owned companies like hotels and textile companies were posting huge profits and paying dividends in the First Republic when there was considerable discipline in governance in our country. But things went kaput particularly since the Ibrahim Babangida military regime when, for instance, over 50 percent of the passengers on every Nigeria Airways flight from Lagos to London or New York were people travelling free of charge or who had rebate tickets enjoying as much as 90 percent discount! Letters for free or heavily discounted tickets came ceaselessly from The Presidency, Ministry of Aviation and military generals for their travelling family members, girlfriends and mistresses as well as distant relatives. In this kind of undisciplined environment or in a country like Jonathan’s Nigeria where the country’s cash cow, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, would have as many as five chief executives in four years, it will be tragic not to expect the government to interfere incessantly in the day-to-day operations of state-owned enterprises.

It is undue government interference which has brought the TCN almost to its knees. As a result, the Nigerian people have not been able to have full value for their money in respect of the Manitoba management contract with the TCN. For instance, the sustained blitzkrieg by vested interests, encouraged by Jonathan’s Presidency which emasculated the Ministry of Power after Nnaji’s departure, made it impossible for Nigerian TCN employees to travel abroad to acquire modern technical and management skills. There are many other costs to the power industry. It is noteworthy that it was in an attempt to salvage the TCN from government’s asphyxiation that Chinedu Nebo, the immediate past minister of power and a man with conscience, set in motion the process to privatise the transmission network. Concession of segments of the network for between 20 and 30 years which will provide for the building of full-circuit networks remains the best option for Nigeria. In the meantime, the management should be in the hands of a competent and tested firm like Manitoba Hydro International.

Nnaji is right: the Nigerian government should by all means resist the temptation to manage the country’s transmission network. Those pushing a different agenda are entrenched interests. They have held the nation hostage for too long.

Joseph Soweminmo