Jonathan's power sector reform is working. I ran Barth Nnaji's this day interview with my facts and they jelled! www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nnaji-we-are-implementing-key-pillars-of-power-reform/117760/ . So many people just come up with ideas and issues with the power sector, without actually finding out what is happening there. GEJ brought Barth from geometric because of what he had achieved, the reform will take away all those issues you are having with PHCN. Personally, I have started feeling the impact of what the minister was saying, that was what prompted me to take a closer look at GEJ's reform in the sector, and I must say I am impressed.

This is good. Finding out that our young people ae beginning to follow issues that concern us, thereby sharpening their political awareness. Jonathan is actually working.

Was beginning to have my doubts about GEJ, but as a person with analytical mind and fact oriented life, I started snooping and gathering facts. I believed when I travelled to the Abia State capital last 3 weeks and spent to weeks with little no power outage, something that was unimaginable few years ago. I travelled to Owerri and got the same feel after 2 days. This is becoming a surprise. When I saw the interview, I took time to read and analyse what Barth Nnaji was saying. To say the least, am impressed with GEJ's power reform.

I'm really impressed by the outcome of the power sector. It seems like Dr. Barth Nnaji seems like the ONLY person with an actual framework and is working "silently" to untie the bounds held in the power sector... GREAT JOB.

Working ko Working ni, you guys should stop fooling yourselves, the power sector is as comatose as ever.

hercules07: Working ko Working ni, you guys should stop fooling yourselves, the power sector is as comatose as ever.

I am very sure you didn't read that link. And I'm also sure you re one of those who have sworn oath to hate GEJ irrespective of whatever he does. Its unfortunate. At least I had expected you to supply us some facts in support of your hatred. Or in the alternative refute some of the claims made by the minister. But u did none of that. You re just content on hating even when it means doing it ignorantly. I want to see that your beloved presidential material that will not take these steps to initiate these reforms but will just come and perform abracadabra in 1 year and the power crisis of over 52 years will end overnight.

In my area of Port Harcourt power remains a problem, we just bribed NEPA with 140 000 to rehabilitate a transformer the same NEPA people vandalized after 7 weeks of darkness. In the past 48 hours we have had 8 - 10 hours of electricity only for the neutral line to go of and its back to square 0.

otokx: In my area of Port Harcourt power remains a problem, [b]we just bribed NEPA with 140 000 [/b]to rehabilitate a transformer the same NEPA people vandalized after 7 weeks of darkness. In the past 48 hours we have had 8 - 10 hours of electricity only for the neutral line to go of and its back to square 0.

Next time you want to bribe NEPA, get a PEN camera first so we can weatch it here live on Nairaland.

See Farouk's Bro them, who knows who's voices are these

Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, was recently a guest of THISDAY Board of Editors.

He was drilled on the progress made so far under the power sector reform programme he is driving. He responded to the questions admitting there were problems and challenges such as the lack of availability of the right quantity of gas to fire the plants. Nnaji also noted there have been successes scored so far, insisting the power roadmap was on track as the compass that would lead to increased electricity output between 2012 and 2015

The nation has been bedeviled more with mega-excuses rather than the promised megawatts; why?

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about what we are doing. I didn’t realise that we have been offering so many excuses. I thought we were telling you what the situation is. I have been minister for ten months. Prior to that I was adviser to the president on power and when we came, what we saw was an absolute mess of the power sector. We met 2,800MW of power delivered to the grid; a lot of the power plants were never really in order and got epileptic maintenance that naturally produced epileptic power supply. Ideally, a power plant should be maintained on schedule and if you don’t do that, you run the risk of running down the plant. So we had a lot of power plants that did not produce up to 50 per cent of their installed capacities; that is the sort of thing we met. The national grid was also weak, which means if something happened on the grid, you ran the risk of cutting off a whole region. In addition, there was no plan for gas supply to the thermal power stations, so we had plants that were being built without gas availability or a proper plan; the distribution plan was also in disarray, such that we could have a power plant without actually getting the electricity to where it could be used. Unfortunately, those in the sector know that power production and delivery are not like building roads and some other facilities. If you are building a road, you can build 50 per cent of it and put it to use, but for power, 99.9 per cent will not be sufficient; you have to have 100 per cent completion to fire it to work. Secondly, it takes time to build a power plant, no matter what anybody tells you, you do not buy power turbines off the shelf. If we had started when we came in here to build any power plant, we would not have completed it by now, no matter the miracle.

So that is the situation we met but we found that Obasanjo’s regime had covered a very positive and important mileage in the power sector, that is the establishment of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act of 2005. That Act was essentially aimed at reforming the sector with the realisation that NEPA as an authority that prevented anybody else from generating electricity or distributing electricity was not in a position to solve Nigeria’s power problem, and that the population was growing at a tremendous rate. We needed an economy that would compete with others in the world, and prior, we had not invested in power for a period of 15 years so there was no real investment in power production, and there was no way we were going to catch up with the rest of the world with NEPA as the driver of the power sector. So on realisation of this, the natural thing was to reform the sector. It therefore paved the way for private companies to generate and distribute electricity, that’s what informed the 2005 Electric Power Reform Act. But an act of parliament could not just be on the shelf with no accompanying action. We thought that a way to start would be to have a roadmap based on that Act and that roadmap which the president launched in August 2010 provided for step-by-step implementation of the Act, as well as the assurance that with that implementation we would reach the point of absolute reliable and sustainable electricity in Nigeria. So a lot of work had been going on behind the scenes, not something that could give you electricity today but something which if we implement as we are implementing would absolutely ensure that we have electricity in the medium to long term.

With respect to implementation, we are getting to the point of completing implementation of the key pillars of the reform programme. When we started to implement the roadmap, we took a two-prong approach as the president announced in his speech. First, we said let us do as much as possible to recover capacity at the power plants that are installed but not working, let us fix them. Based on that, we would have been able to recover more than 1,000MW within the short period. We also said let’s aggressively pursue fixing the transmission network, so that as we continue to improve power we would be able to take the electricity to the needed destinations, which would translate to an investment on improved distribution network in the short term. The next step was to create the institutional framework that will ensure reliability and sustainability and those institutions would be there to ensure that we are able to purchase power and provide guarantees that would pave the way to transition from public management to private sector management – the privatisation programme is part of that, with transparency in view. Therefore it is not something that you could go and do in the backroom and come out and finish instantly. It was a step-by-step process that required carrying the public and the international community along in the completion process.

Don’t you think the priority would have been to maintain the existing level of power supply by fixing the old plants, the fragile infrastructure of the existing plants under your rehabilitation exercise, and then proceed to the bigger project that takes us to increased output and privatisation?

That’s actually what I said. We are taking a two-pronged approach – the first is involves quick recovery of installed capacities, but we should not forget what actually it takes to undertake recovery. It means the fresh installation of 1MW of power, which costs $1 million. That means that if you are going to build a brand new 1,000MW station, it will cost you $1 billion. However, we don’t have such resources now. I will give you a simple example: the recovery of one unit of Afam provides 138MW, at a whopping costs N6.9 billion but that is just 138MW. You will find some others that cost more, so the money isn’t just there floating for us to do the massive recovery that is needed to turn the sector around. That is why the privatisation of the sector is essential. As such, the first thing that made sense was to a do a quick fix and right now this approach has yielded 1,000MW extra, with an additional 1000MW expected this year which should bring total available capacity to 5,400MW. If we had been consistent with this type of aggressive approach, we won’t be having the problem we are having now. Then again, Nigeria is a country of 167 million people so even when we recover 2,000MW that will be insignificant. So for this year, we are going to rely on the quick recovery approach and the coming on stream of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) that was started sometime ago and stopped in 2007 for almost two-and-half years and then restarted by this administration with a fast-track philosophy. We are aggressively pursuing the completion of these plants and we will be able to get a number of them on stream this year.

So what are the main challenges you anticipate in wheeling out the extra capacity expected to come on stream?

Actually, our problem is going to be the scarcity of gas. We have a problem there. If you give me gas today, I will give you an additional 1,500MW because we have the stations ready to take the fuel but we don’t have the gas. Just two days ago, Utorogu Gas Plant was shut down for repairs, and what we have lost because of that is over 390MW. So the problem of power supply in the recent past has been lack of coordination; we have not coordinated in such a way that we have enough gas for electricity production. There is also the problem of transmission infrastructure, but we are handling the transmission part. However, gas is going to continue to be a major challenge unless something is done, the same thing that we have done in power needs to be done in gas for us to have adequacy.

What is the problem with having gas, it is not that it is not available, so what is the problem?

We are a country very rich in gas, we have not just planned to produce gas for commercial consumption and the problem of insufficient power is here. By next year, we will have available capacity of close to 9,000MW from the NIPPs coming on stream. If we are able to generate the expected quantity of gas for power, we shall be able to witness a drastic improvement in power supply by the end of this year. Based on what is currently on the ground, starting from next month, you will begin to see an improvement similar to the December/January (last year) scenario when the improvement was felt by all. This will be repeated more prominently, we will exceed that quotient this year and we will stay like that on an incremental basis. But realistically, Nigeria should be leapfrogging, as I don’t want to be talking about 3,000-4,000MW. I want us to think about leapfrogging so that we can catch up with other emerging or developing nations, that is where I am heading for.

Don’t you think the situation in the power sector calls for something more than the emergency declared in the power sector?

There is no need for emergency in power really because we have tackled the main problem that will deliver power, I can tell you that.

(Cuts in…) But we are living in an emergency already, and the problem Dr. Eddie Iroh described captures it all. I think you can have an interface with Servicom so that the communication between consumers and service providers flows on a steady basis; it doesn’t have to get to the minister, but to somebody near his table and it comes under one page.

What we have done ourselves is to set up consumer consultative forums, which were launched last month, but of course we have to promote them, so that people should know they are available. With the forums in place, if we have any issue, we should just call or send an email and someone will respond within a certain period of time, because we have these problems ahead of these complaints – it could be a transformer fault or something else. Somebody was saying they were made to buy a transformer for their neighborhood, but it is not something that should be happening because transformers are provided by the power authority and are free. However, I must admit that we are dealing with one of the most corrupt, if not the most corrupt sector of the economy, that is where we have found ourselves, and what we are doing is to cut off the head of the snake through privatisation – transfer the distribution companies to the private sector, so this way, the owners will now be chasing after you instead of you chasing after them.

In this respect, what has happened in the telecoms industry will surely happen in the power sector – the bidding process will be completed in July next month and bidders will submit their bids by October, so we expect that we should announce winners soon after. Under the current dispensation, those who call themselves distribution companies that interact with the consumers are marketers who work for themselves; they are out there, their small networks or companies, exploiting consumers and we have heard about them. But we have to stop this whole thing because the key to having investors agree to build a power plant is that they must sell to credible buyers. What we are doing to contain this fraud is to use the bulk trader to buy power and provide guarantees. But really, the ideal situation is to have a bilateral agreement. You don’t need to have a middle man in the business, but to have that, you need to have a credit worthy off-taker, and a credit worthy off-taker means the distribution company network should be robust, that the distribution company mode of collection must be efficient, that you must have a really efficient and honest system that can only come through the privatisation process.

What this translates to is that if your transformer breaks down, the distribution company must come to repair it because it will be losing business if it does not fix it. You will be provided with a prepaid meter, because that establishes a transparent transaction between you and the provider, which would rather be efficient than argue with you. The provider would want your business. This is the market structure we are headed towards and we are almost there. But many want to remain under the old order where the distribution companies preferred the corrupt billing system rather than the pre-paid metering system.

After 16 Billion Dollars have gone oblivion, next administration will say they met 2800MW or less,
just before his election when we always had constant power to lure us to vote for our own national failure,
where did they see the constant power given to us? Any time an evil policy is in the offing, there would
always be a boost in supply from no where, Nigerians keep getting fooled and forget easily.

Jonathan keeps smiling as though he's innocent of Nigerian's problems, stylishly creating a Divide in the
country and pretending that he is naive and harmless.

We pray that God truely gives us a leader whom the easiest way to describe his origin will be that he is
a Nigerian!

Swintine,be constructive and unbiased in ur criticisms. Don't just talk because you wan2. What GEJ is doing in that sector within this one year in office is what past leaders failed to do. Facts please!

Who are these govt agents on nairaland?
Nigeria had about 2300MW in 1999, and today it has peaked at about 3200MW.
PDP govt has only added 1000MW in all the 13yrs of her rule, what makes you think PDP, GEJ or is it Barth, is serious and committed to any power reform?
A govt that is only thinking about generation without mapping out a well laid strategy for gas production and distribution is only joking. Are they going to be transporting the gas (that is not even available) via trucks to the NIPP's or have they started laying down pipes for gas distribution?
Power sector reform my foot!
Guys, the so called improvement you see today in generation is simply an overworking the systems currently available to deceive nigerians. The systems will soon pack up and we'll be back to square one.

^^^^ well if i have to speak wether u said the truth or not is what i dnt know

but i have to speak on what i know

u talk about over working the system? well u need to explain;to me the only time that should be an issue is when there is enuff [b]eletrical power on the grid[/b]the fundamentalities of _physicselectricity do not comprise; for eg if u over load a transformer guess u know the outcome right; so tell us what u mean by that phrase plz; till then we will start to worry about other stuff like switch gear and etc

Nevermind pdp people voted for JOe so if OBJ _{just like his aviation minister bros} could only squander billion as s tupid as he is then i think there is a point to make in term of progress

people should not critise for no reason; its pointless i think

now i once again ask those bitter ofenmmanu if Buhari has an igbo as deputy would u lots galvanize for a vote like u ve doing ?

we are not blinded by foolishness

[img]http://www.50centloseweight.com[/img]look good

Ikeymann00, facts are more appreciated. You people should leave this guy alone, whether you want to accept it or not. This guy is doing a good job and soon, you will be among the firsts to change the tune of your music. I don't think you read that article properly, maybe you are among those people that argue because they heard someone doing so.

@captainajama, u should hav said what i said that isn't true either, how many times did obj boast of achieving 4MW? So shocked that wen GEJ/JEG came he still claimed of reaching 4MW, or ar we in 2nd 4MW? Or have we not noticed dat GEJ uses constant power supply 2 decieve us while lunching killing measures? I'v gone a step ahead of the facts u askd 4 to give u the truth. GEJ is showing signs of failure, if he does, then u & i would agree we ended up losing about 20yrs of our development to virtually OBJ & GEJ.

Mind u, GEJ has startd making up excuses 4 anticipated failure by saying dat the country was already this bad b4 he became presido, did he not know this before becoming presido?

swintiney: @captainajama, u should hav said what i said that isn't true either, how many times did obj boast of achieving 4MW? So shocked that wen GEJ/JEG came he still claimed of reaching 4MW, or ar we in 2nd 4MW? Or have we not noticed dat GEJ uses constant power supply 2 decieve us while lunching killing measures? I'v gone a step ahead of the facts u askd 4 to give u the truth. GEJ is showing signs of failure, if he does, then u & i would agree we ended up losing about 20yrs of our development to virtually OBJ & GEJ.

Mind u, GEJ has startd making up excuses 4 anticipated failure by saying dat the country was already this bad b4 he became presido, did he not know this before becoming presido?

Must you comment in areas of your ignorance ? Stop disgracing me pls.

Mandelaguy: Jonathan's power sector reform is working. I ran Barth Nnaji's this day interview with my facts and they jelled! www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nnaji-we-are-implementing-key-pillars-of-power-reform/117760/ . So many people just come up with ideas and issues with the power sector, without actually finding out what is happening there. GEJ brought Barth from geometric because of what he had achieved, the reform will take away all those issues you are having with PHCN. Personally, I have started feeling the impact of what the minister was saying, that was what prompted me to take a closer look at GEJ's reform in the sector, and I must say I am impressed.

Ok, if you say so. However, I have been reading some complaints on this forum by people who say they have not had electricity in their neighborhood for about 3-6 months now in that same country Nigeria. Are you insinuating that their claims are false?

@ dasparrow,am not saying they are wrong, but if you run your check,you will find out that the projects are seriously ongoing, and some areas are already enjoying the benefits. Some power plants are nearing completion,and when the monopoly from PHCN is no longer in place(distribution companies will take over) visible changes will be felt. That informed the upward review of the tariff,to engage the distribution companies,so that you will be paying for what you use and that informed the 3 categories of users. Even at that,we will still be the lowest consumers in the market because there will be proper metering and all. Just take time and go through what is happening in the sector.

Some pple are just born to condem and criticize unreasonably... Nd dey can't eve manage dre home talk less of community, state or country... GEJ is tryn his best to change dis corupt nation we only need to support nd critize him constructively wen required...

Thisday and GEJ !! What a marriage!!! Keep deceiving them

mosalab: Some pple are just born to condem and criticize unreasonably... Nd dey can't eve manage dre home talk less of community, state or country... GEJ is tryn his best to change dis corupt nation we only need to support nd critize him constructively wen required...

Guy don't talk like that, we are not seeing white and saying its black.

I have always loved Barth Nnaji (the only minister working) and his pragmatic ways of leadership. I am grateful to Jonathan for finding him and making him the Minister of Power. At least we should be grateful with the information he has provided. I can see he wants to introduce transparency and normalcy in the sector. What I enjoyed was the way he highlighted the various issues in the power sector and how his team (I don't think Jonathan is involved here) are going to tackle it. For General Electric (GE) to show interest in Power Generation in this country, there is hope. I know Barth Nnaji will deliver on his promises, if not 100% at least 50% before Jonathan's tenure elapses. My fear is continuity, because I know that many of our leaders only want to become leaders in order to decorate their C.Vs or make money from it, many of them are clueless and lack vision. I pray Barth Nnaji continues till the problem is solved regardless of who is the president.

NB: For the remaining ministers, what are you guys even doing sef? I can't feel you, I can't see you, I can't even hear if you are working on any of your projects, sometimes I even forget you exist, till I hear that there is one party here or there then you show up. You are the ones giving Jonathan a bad name, although the man has his own issues.

otokx:

Guy don't talk like that, we are not seeing white and saying its black.

then let's all face reality nd leave our political nd ethnical sentiment while comentn on our leaders for d betterment of our country... Buhari/Tinubu can not do bet@

I totally agree with the enlightened Nigerian who took the pains to actually do his research before coming out to talk on a public platform,that is commendable and also a trait that sadly we Nigerians lack,any piece of information that we read on any piece of paper becomes the truth to us,we do not usually stop to remember for a minute that whatever you read is just one persons point of view.as far as all the data and information that I have managed to source can tell me the power sector reform of this government is on track,the regional manager of sub Saharan Africa for a reputable company like General Electronics when he was interviewed said that the blueprint that has been drawn up by this government is commendable and a one of its kind in Africa,and that as far as he was concerned everything was on track and was being done in the most transparent manner,and that this was a sure path to boosting investors confidence in that sector.so when the experts in that field tell you that everything is on track why do we still want to argue the fact again.Time will tell anyway,this I strongly believe,TIME WILL TELL.

swintiney: @captainajama, u should hav said what i said that isn't true either, how many times did obj boast of achieving 4MW? So shocked that wen GEJ/JEG came he still claimed of reaching 4MW, or ar we in 2nd 4MW? Or have we not noticed dat GEJ uses constant power supply 2 decieve us while lunching killing measures? I'v gone a step ahead of the facts u askd 4 to give u the truth. GEJ is showing signs of failure, if he does, then u & i would agree we ended up losing about 20yrs of our development to virtually OBJ & GEJ.

Mind u, GEJ has startd making up excuses 4 anticipated failure by saying dat the country was already this bad b4 he became presido, did he not know this before becoming presido?

swintiney: @captainajama, u should hav said what i said that isn't true either, how many times did obj boast of achieving 4MW? So shocked that wen GEJ/JEG came he still claimed of reaching 4MW, or ar we in 2nd 4MW? Or have we not noticed dat GEJ uses constant power supply 2 decieve us while lunching killing measures? I'v gone a step ahead of the facts u askd 4 to give u the truth. GEJ is showing signs of failure, if he does, then u & i would agree we ended up losing about 20yrs of our development to virtually OBJ & GEJ.

Mind u, GEJ has startd making up excuses 4 anticipated failure by saying dat the country was already this bad b4 he became presido, did he not know this before becoming presido?

i commend you for reading the link but it is obvious that you did not read thru or you read it with malice. For your sake, I will attempt to summarize what I read from the llnk and hope that this time reason will prevail. We appreciate that the present govt has some shortcomings and challenges especially in the area of security. But it will be most unfair for anybody to say that nothing is happening.

The truth is that this govt is working and has recorded much successes in key areas but it remains a matter of time for this successes to be felt by the common man. Like I said , governance is not an oral activity. you cannot fix Nigeria's power problem overnight. It's a long term project. But with the steps taken so far, you will know that Nigeria is on the right track. First, the govt keyed into the power sector reform Act enacted by Obj. Gej launched the power sector roadmap which is largely anchored on NIPP and the privatization of PHCN.

For generation, the govt is focusing on increasing their generation capacity by the revival of NIPP, which was initiated by Obj and abandoned by Yaradua. This govt has worked on Utorogu gas plant, completed the Mambilla and Zungeru. As at last December, govt had hit 4000 megawatts but due to the challenge of gas supply the dividends was short lived. To this end, govt has signed bulk purchase trader agreements with many companies like Siemens, General electric co etc. They are to participate in the distribution of power.

Recently, Gej convened an emergency session on power and gas where he educated the 36 governors on how he intends to increase tariffs in order to make it cost reflective and attractive for private companies to invest. It's unfortunate that many seek to create the mischievous impression that Jonathan deliberately wants to suffer the masses. Sadly, it is the same people who go to Uk and pay as much as 600pounds as electricity bills that come round to deceive the people. I was happy when I read in THISDAY of Saturday 16th that El Rufai himself admitted that a 300-400 percent increase is needed to salvage the power sector.

Mke u no mind dem. Jona is trying his best. Ask any of them who are saying these rubbish to furnish you with their own solutions to the problems, they will go numb. All they do is sit down and talk. Arm chair critics. Mtcheeeeew!

I read tthru the interview and and my worries increased. All these people making noise in this forum for Jonathan may be in for a shock. From what I read, we still have a long way to go. The matter no be here. The minister says he's deploying a 2 pronged approach. One, it's a quick fix of existing infrastructure. Two, it's the privatization of PHCN and the distribution network for efficiency and sustainability. According to the minister, the distribution infrastructure is in a deplorable state such that even after they have succeeded in repairing some power plants to generate according to installed capacity, they still have problems distributing this power to the end users. This is why most Nigerians complain that even after they hear that govt has been able to generate up to 4000 megawatts yet the impact is hardly felt. It's a major challenge. This govt must step up efforts to improve on existing infrastructure so that the little megawatts that Mambilla and Zungeru are adding to the national grid will be transmitted. I must admit that Gej's govt is actually working very hard to reform the power sector. It's not easy to complete both Zungeru and Mambilla power plants in less than a year. In his democracy day broadcast, Gej said his govt is working on transmission lines covering over 6000 km, that will be a welcome development. The involvement of General Electric in the sector is a landmark foreign direct investment in a sector that requires huge capital. I am also impressed with the steps taken to privatize PHCN , that is where the ultimate solution to our problems lie. Initially, I had reservations over the upward review of electricity tariffs. I questioned why this govt is always eager to remove existing subsies. But having watched Sam Amadi's interview on this subject matter, I was convinced that we needed to pay the right tariffs so that production can be sustained by the prospective private investors. It will pay us better. But I'm yet to understand how they re going to go about classifying consumers. I think these are the issues where clarity is needed. The govt is trying very excellently, no doubt. But adequate efforts should be made by the Ministry of power to diseminate information to the public on the ongoing reforms. People need to know why they have to pay more for electricityMambilapower

Nice point. There's a lot of misinformation out there about governments activities. most Nigerians no know who the minister be sef. Even myself just got to know wots happening in the sector via d interview. After reading it online, I had to post it to Nairaland so dt we can discuss it and I have learnt a lot since then.

ubandire: I read tthru the interview and and my worries increased. All these people making noise in this forum for Jonathan may be in for a shock. From what I read, we still have a long way to go. The matter no be here. The minister says he's deploying a 2 pronged approach. One, it's a quick fix of existing infrastructure. Two, it's the privatization of PHCN and the distribution network for efficiency and sustainability. According to the minister, the distribution infrastructure is in a deplorable state such that even after they have succeeded in repairing some power plants to generate according to installed capacity, they still have problems distributing this power to the end users. This is why most Nigerians complain that even after they hear that govt has been able to generate up to 4000 megawatts yet the impact is hardly felt. It's a major challenge. This govt must step up efforts to improve on existing infrastructure so that the little megawatts that Mambilla and Zungeru are adding to the national grid will be transmitted. I must admit that Gej's govt is actually working very hard to reform the power sector. It's not easy to complete both Zungeru and Mambilla power plants in less than a year. In his democracy day broadcast, Gej said his govt is working on transmission lines covering over 6000 km, that will be a welcome development. The involvement of General Electric in the sector is a landmark foreign direct investment in a sector that requires huge capital. I am also impressed with the steps taken to privatize PHCN , that is where the ultimate solution to our problems lie. Initially, I had reservations over the upward review of electricity tariffs. I questioned why this govt is always eager to remove existing subsies. But having watched Sam Amadi's interview on this subject matter, I was convinced that we needed to pay the right tariffs so that production can be sustained by the prospective private investors. It will pay us better. But I'm yet to understand how they re going to go about classifying consumers. I think these are the issues where clarity is needed. The govt is trying very excellently, no doubt. But adequate efforts should be made by the Ministry of power to diseminate information to the public on the ongoing reforms. People need to know why they have to pay more for electricityMambilapower

@ubamdire, you spoke well and sounded contradictory as well . You referred to those of us who chronicled Gej's achievements in the power sector point blank as " those making noise" but I will not begrudge you for that because you ended up re echoing almost the same facts I put forward as to why Gej has done brilliantly well in les than one year. Maybe it's a matter of diction or a lack of boldness to acknowledge that Gej deserves a passmark so far.

Our problem in this country is that we have a default mindset that Gej is weak and so even when he scores a major point, we seem to overlook it or in the internative underrate it. There's obviously little nexus between ur earlier predictions that we re in for a shock and ur later admissions tthat the reforms are really Ongoing. Your post was educative with regards to the construction of additional transmission lines. You see, this govt is really working.

However, I agree with you that the govt must take extra measures to educate the masses on its workings and performance. Such is the stuff participatory democracy is made of.

The issue here is not only for government to enlighten the people, it is about the sincerity of their actions and plans. I believe that more than 80% of what is needed to make Nigeria great is already written down in a report or journal, our albatross is in the implementation. It is true that machines required for power generation are not what can be picked off the shelve but the fact that GE is involved does not mean that our political class is serious. For example, what came out of the national ID scheme that Siemens was involved or the Halibuton scam?
The federal government of Nigeria right now is bedevilled by corruption and until there is a concious effort to bring corruption to its kness all the lofty ideas been talked about will remain nursery rhymes.