Nigerian Energy Crisis
Nigeria is in the throes of energy crisis without enough fuel to power its cars, diesel to run its generators or cheap kerosene for citizens to cook at home. Steady and cheap electricity for production is rare; just as adequate food for its labour force does not exist.
Energy crisis is created when the supply chain is disrupted by corruption, hostility or accident leading to sudden hike in pump price. For a proper understanding of the Nigerian peculiar situation, we note the progressive increase in pump price over the decades. Whereas in 1973 pump price for Prime Motor Spirit, PMS, was 6 Kobo per liter, the same quantity of fuel sells for N1,300 today.
Within the same period there was little improvement in electricity generation, food production, public transport system, health care and low-cost housing for poor citizens. This means only the poor bore the brunt of fuel hike. It is state-sponsored inequality asking the poor to buy fuel at the same price as the rich without giving the former same state privileges that naturally flow to the latter. This widens the poverty gap.
A balanced understanding of energy is absolutely necessary at this introductory stage for us not to fall into the crime of omission; which the Federal Government is guilty of. Food, solar, electricity, gas, fuel and coal are all forms of energies. A country with inadequate fuel but self-reliant in electricity cannot be said to have energy crisis. Equally so, a country with abundant fuel supply but lacks the ability to feed itself has serious energy crisis. Solution must cover all forms of energy.
Managing energy crisis
One, the disruption of our energy supply line is not an upstream but downstream problem. It is a refining and distribution problem. To get around this problem, we must build, at least, twelve new refineries of different capacities to ensure uninterrupted fuel supply. Nigeria has no business importing refined petroleum products when we can refine them ourselves. If not corruption, what else disrupts our energy supply chain to justify importation?
Two, Nigeria could develop oil-from-coal technology to attain energy self-sufficiency. The Republic of South Africa has been doing this since 1955. The country’s energy giant, Sasol, refined 1.5 billion barrels of synthetic fuel from 800 million tons of coal in 70 years. Nigeria has huge coal deposit in Enugu and the requisite technology can be profitably applied.
Three, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision to partner Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, IVM, to develop mass transit buses that run on Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, is commendable. Rich in natural gas, Nigeria can diversify this technology to power its factories.
Four, we have silicon used in solar panel production. The floor of the Atlantic Ocean forming part of our continental shelves has cobalt used in manufacturing battery for storing solar energy. Manufacturing these components locally will usher Nigeria into the age of renewable energy.
Five, steady and cheap electricity is our best alternative. We can build over 200 Thermal Electricity Generating plants that use natural gas. Such plants will wean production from the vagaries of fuel hike. Besides, 40percent of our PMS is expended on generators by citizens who have no cars. With steady electricity, the 40percent demand will vanish forcing down pump price.
Six, in the Second Quarter of 2024 the Federal Government spent N90 billion on pilgrimage with scant attention paid to mechanised agriculture. This must be reversed for Nigerian to attain food energy self-sufficiency. We need farm settlements and plantations with the requisite machinery and agricultural extension officers to assist our farmers.
And seven, there are advantages when a city is properly planned and managed. You save energy eliminating traffic gridlock and inner-city congestion. For instance, Port Harcourt motorists will save fuel if Rivers State government builds four gateway bus terminals at Emohua, Isiokpo, Oyigbo and Bori. The idea is to decongest the capital city while promoting ease of doing business. Transporters like G. Agofure Motors will have no business entering Port Harcourt since their passengers are converged in Emohua.
Enough is enough
We waste so much time and resources dancing around the same issue of fuel subsidy. Our National Assembly spends so much resources talking about it. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Federal Executive Council, Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, etc, are all wailing about the duplicity of fuel marketers anytime they are not quelling fuel protests. But none wants to build a single refinery to cut out the dreadful marketers. The hues and cries associated with fuel hike have undermined sterner state business.
President Tinubu must not fall into the predictable trap of wasting his tenure exchanging vitriolic narratives over fuel subsidy. That is not why Nigerians voted him into power. We voted him to properly manage the other variables capable of developing this great country not minding fuel hike. We identify these variables as good roads, functional hospitals, steady and cheap electricity, mechanised agriculture, low-cost housing for poor Nigerians and massive development in road, rail and maritime transports.
Nigerians will gladly buy fuel at N1400 per liter but Tinubu must first declare national emergency on the above listed indices of development. If Tinubu embarks on massive infrastructural development used by everyday citizens, none will complain of fuel hike since only rich Nigerians constituting less than 10percent of the population will buy fuel for their posh cars. The vast 90percent using viable public transport system will not complain.
Put differently, if the only expensive thing in Nigeria is fuel, then nothing is expensive for ordinary Nigerians as long as President Tinubu develops mechanised agriculture, builds two Thermal Electricity Generating plants in every Senatorial District, procures wide-bodied boats/ferries for coastal and inland waterways transportation, improves healthcare, removes bottlenecks for farmers to easily export their products, etc. But fuel hike becomes an issue in the absence of these indispensables.
So let the NNPCL sell at competitive prices to marketers for us to have peace; especially as selling below international rates will only encourage the smuggling of products to the neighbouring Niger, Chad, Cameroun and Benin Republics. Reverse that by increasing pump prices to make smuggling unattractive.
Conclusion
A skewed understanding of our energy needs led to over-dependence on petroleum without equal attention given to other forms of energy. This is not healthy for our national interests. We should stop giving too much attention to petroleum, which is just one commodity in the energy value chain. Why is the National Assembly not talking about establishing farm settlements to boost food production? Was it fuel hike that collapsed the national grid? Who is talking about that?
Former Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State took a calculated risk floating Ibom Air in 2019. His successor, incumbent Governor Umo Eno, turned this state-owned airline into a huge success story with a large fleet today. Can the Federal Government replicate the Ibom Air wonder reviving the Nigeria Airways and Nigerian National Shipping Line, NNSL?
We make Dangote Refinery and NNPCL demi-gods talking about them every day. Let us also focus attention on solar energy, electricity, food, CNG and oil-from-coal, for instance. By the time we attain self-sufficiency in these energies, our reliance on fuel will reduce and Nigerians will excel. When the faceless marketers realise Nigerians depend less on petroleum products, they will stop hoarding, crash prices or fizzle out. That is the way to go.
.Ajie writes from Port Harcourt. Email: [email protected]
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