- Katsina Enters Power Agreement To Develop State’s Electricity Market
As Nigeria grapples with poor power supply, a foundation member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Osita Okechukwu, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgent national importance, recapitalise and nationalise our electricity sector, “for the economic growth and industrial development of the country.”
He said the privatisation disaster was over a decade in the making with increasing energy prices, job losses, and factories closures.
According to him, the only valid option is to recapitalise and restructure the energy sector around public ownership, in line with progressivism and the change the APC promised.
This is as the Katsina State government has entered into a power agreement with Power Africa, Nigeria Power Sector Programme (PA-NPSP), for the development of the state’s electricity market.
The partnership aims to enhance electricity availability and access in Katsina by developing the necessary policy and regulatory frameworks for the state’s electricity market.
Mr Okechukwu, former Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), urged the president to borrow a leaf from Albert Einstein’s maxim, which states that it will amount to insanity to continue expending public funds along profiteering oligopolies and hope to get commensurate electricity output.
“Mr President, we are in economic crisis like UK after the 2nd World War. Labour, a progressive party like APC, to strengthen their economy, nationalised fundamental industries like electricity and their electricity sector generated 30,000 megawatts in less than 20 years. Why can’t we recapitalise with $30 billion to generate 30,000 megawatts in less than 10 years under public ownership?
“(Former British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher came in the 1980s and privatised, and the cry for public ownership is back in UK as neoliberal policies, most times, fuel poverty and throw thousands out of jobs,” Okechukwu said, as reported by The Nation on Sunday, May 19.
Okechukwu observed that when he initially warned that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led federal government was not transparent in the privatisation process, neither Foreign Direct Investment flowed in nor did foreign investors truly participate.
Despite his warnings, no one listened, and local economic opportunists took advantage of the situation.
The APC chieftain argued that the chickens had come home to roost; as the available financial records gazetted that the billions government poured in to bail out the stagnated less than 4,000 megawatts after the privatisation scheme “is far more than the monies paid by the oligopolistlic firms and regrettably the megawatts remained stagnate.”
Reminded that there is improvement in the electricity supply contrary to his postulation, he disagreed vehemently, saying that what happened was akin to “April Fool – the floated high tariff Band-Class-Bogey – which daily will push many out of national grid and left few to enjoy the remnant megawatts.”
Okechukwu submitted: “Are we not ashamed that after expending $16 billion on NIPP, and uncountable billions of dollars afterwards, that 200 million people ration less than 4,000 megawatts of electricity?
“Mr President, please let’s muster the socio-economic will and borrow $30 billion to generate 30,000 megawatts under public ownership in less than 10 years.
“It is my considered view that the loan will pay itself, if Mr President nominates credible professionals with proven capacity in delivery and transparency, to not only implement this grand national project, but to carry out thorough studies to establish the investment requirements, which holistically will fix the electricity chain.
“This is the solution provider that will expand the frontiers of the production spirit of Nigerians, hence economic resorgimento.”
On Katsina State’s development of the state’s electricity market, a statement from the chief press secretary to the governor said the power agreement was signed after Governor Dikko Umaru Radda met with representatives from the Power Africa Nigeria Power Sector Programme (PA-NPSP), including Andrew Smith, Deputy Chief of Party, and Lanre Lawson, Outcome Leader for Enabling Environment and Transmission in Abuja.
The statement reads: “This partnership aims to enhance electricity availability and access in Katsina by developing the necessary policy and regulatory frameworks for the state’s electricity market.
‘”The PA-NPSP, a signature programme of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focuses on comprehensive power sector reforms, a supportive enabling environment, and increased private sector investment.
“The programme seeks to add 10,000 MW of electricity generation capacity and create three million new electricity connections across Nigeria.”
Governor Radda expressed gratitude to the PA-NPSP team for selecting Katsina as the first state in Northern Nigeria for such a collaboration.
He promised the state government’s commitment to achieving the stated objectives, which were crucial for increasing electricity access, stimulating industrial activities, creating jobs, and improving overall infrastructure and social amenities in Katsina.
