Then, I was not born but history has it that by the time of Nigeria’s independence, the colonial masters had high expectations from the country they were leaving. It was predicted that we would become one of the leading economies in a few years and a force to reckon with in Africa after independence.
Perhaps, revelling in its potential to be a great nation, Nigeria prides itself the “Giant of Africa”. I am not a believer in forecasting, but I know most forecasts are as a result of extensive research and analysis. Nevertheless, I would not have expected anything less than fact from scientific forecast.
With such an overwhelming population, Nigeria is blessed with human resource. Then talk about the black gold – petroleum – one of the world’s most widely-used and expensive resources, was found in addition to favourable weather and welcoming temperature; we could not have wished for more blessing from God; we are blessed.
With the reality of today, Nigeria seems to have moved many centuries in backward direction. The promising statistics of the late 50’s and 60’s have all become a myth. But where did we get it all wrong?
In essence, there are so many aspects of our stagnant development in which we have terribly failed. I have chosen to dwell on the problem of electricity ravaging the nation. Since my childhood days, Nigerians have not enjoyed uninterrupted power supply; instead of improving and provide more turbine to generate more megawatts of electricity, the fact is that the nation’s total power output has gone worse. As a student, I am schooling in one of the hottest parts of the country and as a result, I’m not finding it easy to cope with heat. Michael Faraday would be laughing at us, for if the scientist were to be a Nigerian, we would not have built on this excellent invention.
For many years now, Nigerians have been left to suffer the consequences of erratic power supply. We are socially, economically and industrially weakened because we do not have a stable power supply. Most people cannot cope with this again.
If this was to be happening in the 60’s or 70’s when only a few countries could boast of stable power supply, it would have been better; the we-are-not-alone syndrome, which the government usually brings to bear whenever it is being criticised, would have been aptly. Alas, these are times when small countries such as Ghana have dwarfed the sluggish giant called Nigeria in the provision of power supply.
It is unimaginable that for the past 52 years, we have not been able to achieve an uninterrupted power supply. Ours is the case of one step forward and two steps backwards. Every successive government puts up elaborate plans on reviving our comatose power sector but efforts end up in futility and most times, the situation is left to go worse than before.
Recently, when our power generation dropped from 4,517 megawatts to 3,443 megawatts, government officials were everywhere, begging us that the situation would be fixed. But how many megawatts of electricity are we talking about here? It should be a shame to us that Narita Airport in Japan generates about 6,000megawatts for its operation. This figure is above the useless 4,517 being celebrated by the government.
Our government most times claims not to have enough funds but the fact is that most of these countries that now have stable electricity do not posses half of the resources at our beck and call.
However, I won’t be a critic without appraising some of the bold steps taken by the government to save the situation such as the recent privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). We must also explore other electricity-generating means. Other countries use wind turbines, solar electricity and more recently, nuclear reactor.
Furthermore, the Federal Government should relax the constitutional provisions barring federating states from generating their electricity. It is really not going to work that just a company controls the electricity supply of a vast country like Nigeria. Let states come up with their own plan to reduce pressure on PHCN. Finally, the government and corporate bodies should invest in human resource, which is abundant in Nigeria. We have able youths across the country; these are the ones who will work for change since the future of their motherland dangles on balance.
•Sarat is 200-Level Applied Chemistry, UDU, Sokoto
