Abeni Aso-Oke
Malam Mohammed Kabir Ilyasu

WHAT DOES GOVERNMENT NEED OF NIGERIANS: (TCN as the Wild Card) By M K Ilyasu

WHAT DOES GOVERNMENT NEED OF NIGERIANS: (TCN as the Wild Card)

Abeni Aso-Oke

Abeni Aso-Oke

Some people have contributed directly and indirectly to the unfolding electricity black out in the Northern parts of this country. I want in particular to mention Ex-Kano State Governor in the person of Senator (Engr) Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, who in his X platform shared our concern over the delay in restoration of power, a situation that further is compounded by the high cost of petrol and diesel in Nigeria, which has also plunged our homes into darkness and forced factories to close down.

We have been able to recognize three elements of public policies, namely; Accountability, Just Laws, and Open Government.

Abeni Aso-Oke

NIGERIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR.

Nigerian’s electricity sector went through series of reforms that saw the private ownership of 2 major components namely, Generation and Distribution. The question is how did the Transmission escaped Private ownership?

Every policy has three key elements: a problem definition, goals to be achieved, and the policy instruments to address the problem and achieve the goals.

This short essay will attempt to look into those key elements on the Transmission sector (TCN) following recent black out that affected almost all the Northern states including contiguous countries of Niger and Benin Republic. Whether is worth its while to remain a public enterprise or be sold to Private individuals as is the case with Generation and Distribution, I will attempt to address other viable options available.

PRIVATIZATION OF NEPA

The power sector privatization was an initiative by the government of Nigeria to transfer the ownership of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) to private entities to improve efficiency, attract investments and enhance the overall electricity supply in Nigeria (Okechukwu, 2023). This prompted the government of General Abdusalami Abubakar to promulgate the Public Enterprises (Privatization and Commercialization) Decree of 1999 which listed NEPA to change to PHCN for privatization. Has this exercise achieves its intended purposes?

The ongoing power crisis that needs to be addressed underscores the huge deficit of capacity of our power sector. So how would the Privatization of TCN be able to address these large scale problems that must be addressed to avoid any future disruption in transmission and distribution of electricity?

What most of us take for granted is that the knowledge about our reality influences the ideals we hold. There is therefore no sense at valuing something which can never work in our clime. This, to some extent would shape the values we pursue which suggest giving attention to the factual aspects of our situation. If one assumes that there is a link between what is truthful (factual) and what is desirable, then factual analysis must also improve the quality of Govt decisions on electricity power transmission in Nigeria. There is a saying that problem setting is as important as problem solving because the frames which organize thoughts shape the conclusion we reach.

How does understanding of our reality contribute to the clarifications and the choices of Privatizing Public Assets, our previous governments engaged which is in effect, the acceptable language of our politics?

This is perhaps the major issue underlying all efforts to develop a social order which attempts to highlight policy decisions. It is a difficult narrative because understanding of why things are as they are contributes to sense of bafflement, confusion, frustration and complexity which can inhabit the capacity to act, even though it is inspired by the desire for action.

Let me put it slightly different.

Generals Abdulsalam and Obasanjo are credited to selling off Public Assets to private individuals. If their purpose was wanting to increase the utility of these enterprises by selling them off to the seeming accomplished individuals to serve Nigerian demands, then the stronger their attachment to the values they wished to see realized through their actions, the greater this Govt will concern itself with evidence which should permit it to assess whether previous exercises achieves the aims they intended by the course of action they have chosen. The puzzle here addresses the serial breakdown of the National Electric Grid which supposes that all Govts after them (Abdulsalam and OBJ) including this one are duty bound to look for different results that benefits Nigerians irrespective of political party affiliations.

In this respect therefore we need objective knowledge to enable us understand the levers of control and manipulations employed by Govt that disable Nigerians dreams from achieving electricity power sufficiency, considering, considerable intrigues employed to frustrate the operations of Dangote refinery. This indeed calls to question the sincerity of Govt to provide the desired fuel when instead of licensing those modular refineries allegedly operating without license, were wantonly destroyed.

What is really NEEDED OF NIGERIANS BY THE GOVERNMENT?

Government is, after all interested NOT ONLY in controlling, manipulating and predicting the consequences of its environmental policies to ensure that they fall within their desired purposes, but also creating and maintaining a sense of order and continuity

Am I beating the Gun? Who says this Govt wants to privatize TCN?

This leads me to say that there are many different ways of looking at this reality, that is to say, Govt’s insincerity inherent in recent events. World Bank and IMF development frameworks for Nigeria, Lack of Security and persistent and agonizing power failures gives recipe to induce privatization of TCN. This induced value necessitate our query since reality is open to criticism.

PREVIOUS POWER SECTOR PRIVATIZATION EXPERIMENTS

National Electricity Sector privatization history is predicated on so many trials and errors because it lacked periodic evaluation which becomes necessary before we begin to further support policies or reforms without finding out their efficacy. The case for evaluation is absent because of lack of data and that there is no need for proof or explanation while considering the National grid as well as DISCOS who frequent Govt for monetary bail out. Its development history shows that predictions can be made, discovering the pattern that underlies its evolution and trends. This trend suggests that Nigeria is inexorably moving in the direction of privatizing the power sector completely. One held argument strongly maintains that if we have better information about Govt intentions, social programs could be designed ad-interim to cushion effect of privatization, while questions raised on the operational capabilities, as a way of stopping that privatized sector looking to Govt for a bailout.

Even where there is agreement about aims, and objective evaluation undertaken, we have come to realize that the purpose of privatization of the power sector has failed to meet its purpose just like fuel price deregulation that set inflation spiraled beyond CBN’s control.

The possible impact of our institutional reforms can be inferred from the fragmentary evidence of such reform as occurred and more difficult still is the assessment of major redistribution policies as there is little evidence or data to reach an objective reconciliation of the competing claims. Even with the benefit of better information, we must in the end make brute personal, political and value choices about what we can regard as desirable public policy. These choices can not be made without some conception of the good society. The more ruthless the Govt pursue the path of Privatization, the more we come to acknowledge the role of the World Bank and IMF. Govt policy must inevitably involve the resolution of conflicting goals both within the same group and among different groups.

The main safeguard against bias lies in insuring that different perspectives are heard, and more systematic attention must be given to problem solving.

28/10/2024.

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