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Hadiza Wada, DBA
Washington DC
October 31, 2009
On
issues of Energy, a PhD candidate conducting graduate research in the field
of Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University Mohammed Hassan
presented some alarming figures regarding Nigerian Electricity crisis, the
government’s seriousness towards eliminating the issues or lack thereof.
It is an irony, he says that the worlds 6th largest producer of crude oil is experiencing energy crisis. How can that happen. The nation appears to lack the courage to forge ahead with charting its priority requirements so it can build its nation and provide for its people adequate energy to prosper.
Mr. Hassan cited the difference between Nigeria and many nations including those who discovered oil after it. They chart their course looking out for the most efficient way to profit from their natural resources. Saudi Arabia, for example, explores its own oil, drills for it and work on refining it for adequate use of its citizen. Nigeria has failed to drill even a small unitary percentage of its own crude oil to date. It has to rely on Foreign companies to do that on its behalf, at a great loss to the nation.
Another area Mr. Hassan touched on was the gas flaring; i.e. the practice of burning up liquefied natural gas in an attempt to reach and extract crude oil. This he says, is because the nation has to date failed to enter into any tangible agreement with anyone to enhance the drilling industry in order to harness instead of burn up such money making resource. Nigeria flares 2.6 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas in the Niger Delta; and that amounts to 12 percent of total gas flares around the whole world annually. The total amount Nigeria just burns up daily without harnessing for use or sale, amounts to 13% of Europe’s total gas need. Because of such unforgivable wastage a nation so endowed is strapped in shortages of gas, kerosene and diesel and thereby inflation. It also is literally burning up hard foreign currency daily.
Coming back to electrical generation in itself, there is no adequate care and maintenance of facilities meant to generate and distribute electricity. Hassan was saying, he visited Kainji dam a few years ago and was amazed to find that the turbines were the same ones contracted by the Tafawa Balewa Administration in 1962, and commissioned by the Gowon Administration in 1968. Of the eight turbines at that time six were not in operation and the two in operation were working at about 50% capacity.
Another problem is lack of coordination of projects. Even if the megawattage is raised, the distribution system capacity has not been upgraded. Kainji was meant to produce 768 megawatts of electricity as envisaged by the Tafawa Balewa Administration. And this is surprising for many to know, and to date the nation, a half century down the road, could not maintain it to produce just a small fraction of that total capacity.
He attributed part of the problem also to lack of genuine initiative and concern. No adequate assessment and research is done, and even if done it is not the priority of those government officials whose major interest in issues of such magnitude, is putting together a hurried mass contract that gives them some personal benefits. He gave a little insider information about the Obasanjo Administration's promise to provide electricity within a short time after ascending the reigns of power. They contracted General Electric a major U S company to manufacture turbines for billions of Dollars, but today the turbines as expensive as they were, lie in waste at Lagos, abandoned. The project was ill conceived with many uncoordinated measures and deficiencies.
His conclusion finally was, frankly there is no excuse for such neglect. Nigerian Industries can never go anywhere without genuine commitment to harness the maximum electrical power the nation could offer from the available energy resources it has. Any one of the many resources if adequately harnessed, the flared gas, the hydro electrical generation system, and others have the capacity to greatly increase the total power output. It also does not require that a great amount of money be expended. What is needed is care, dedication, and commitment; all of which it appears are lacking from all the leaders Nigeria saw all these years.
Mr. Mohammed was assisted by another research graduate student from Penn State Mr. Chuks.
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