Nnaji - You Have Work to Do

Vanguard

23 August 2011

Nnaji - You Have Work to Do

editorial

NIGERIANS are tired of stories about why they cannot get constant power supply. They have become too familiar with the constraints and the more depressing stories about how the country would have made progress if power supply improved.

All they want now is for government to do everything it can - from the tomes of studies and billions of dollars it has invested - to ensure that electricity is available to Nigerians.

The discovery that the N30 billion ($220 million) Olorunsogo Power Plant is not working will not be news to many. It would have been news if it worked. The 304mw project, commissioned in 2007, works in fits. Of its eight turbines, six have broken down. It produces about 60mw.

Professor Barth Nnaji, Minister of Power, learnt at the plant that it worked for three years then the turbines stopped. Other complaints were lack of spare parts and operating manuals were in Mandarin - a Chinese company built the plant - without English translations.

Nigerians running the plant spoke of their frustration at the hands of the Chinese who were to teach them how to maintain the plant. The Nigerian team could also not access the agreement - which hopefully is written in English - to know their responsibilities. Of course, the Chinese could argue they were protecting their investment, since a loan from the Chinese government was part of the funding for the project.

However, all these point to how serious government is about electricity, which it admits is central to the development of the economy and personal life. The verdict is that the Olorunsogo project, still in its first phase, is as good as doomed. Nnaji promised to take the findings to the President, to explore the possibility of re-negotiating the project that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo commissioned a little before leaving office.