Dilapidated infrastructure, erratic power supply and moribund refineries are some of the problems inherited by Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi and Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu in the ministries of Works/Power/Housing, Transportation/Aviation and Petroleum Resources. Adeyinka Aderibigbe and Emeka Ugwuanyi capture what the trio must do to make the difference.
GOING by the applause their announcements as ministers of Petroleum Resources and Power drew at the swearing of ministers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Mr. Babatunde Fashola have their jobs cut out for them.
Kachikwu (Minister of State), who doubles as the Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Amaechi, former Rivers State governor and now (Transportation, who combines Aviation) and Fashola, who combines Power with the ministries of Works and Housing, face some herculian tasks.
Reason: The tasks ahead are enormous in view of the huge debts and challenges they are inheriting in the two ministries. They would constantly be on the spot.
Save for Kachikwu, whose appointment had long been foretold, the appointments of Amaechi’s and Fashola’s appointments, ended speculations over who man the critical sectors. Their emergence as helmsmen in the three important ministries, have been applauded by operators in the energy and petroleum sectors, considering their antecedents in their previous assignments.
As NNPC’s GMD, Kachikwu has had a taste of the challenges but Fashola and Amaechi, who are coming from the state level, must brace to crack some unimaginable and embarrassing nuts in their respective ministries, now that they have the entire country as their constituency.
Despite being substantially controlled by the private sector, the power sector remains problematic across the value chain of generation, transmission and distribution.
The distribution companies (DISCOS), which feed the entire value chain financially, are facing funding deficit, a challenge that has affected the generation and transmission segments. The two legs depend on revenues collected by the distribution companies.
According to operators in the power sector, the transmission network, is very weak, the weakest link in the chain. The transmission company can at its peak, wheel 5,300 megawatts (mw). Therefore, even if the generation companies can pool 10,000Mw, customers can only get 5100mw because 200Mw may be kept as spinning reserve to balance emergencies.
The distribution companies take at best 60 per cent of what they are supposed to get. No thanks to technical and commercial challenges. Power is lost in transit due to poor equipment and facilities as well as the unwillingness of some customers to pay their electricity bills.
As at the last count, the DISCOS were being owed N32 billion, the bulk of which was, ironically, in the hands of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and the military.
According to the Chairman, Egbin Power Generation Plc., Mr. Kola Adesina, the company is owed N39 billion by the Federal Government, which accumulated from when they took over the asset in November 1, 2013 to October this year.
The Director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr. Sunday Olurotimi Oduntan, told The Nation that the appointments of Fashola and Kachikwu are fantastic. He believed the woes of the power sector would become a thing of the past with synergy between them.
Oduntan said: “The appointment of Fashola and Kachikwu is a welcome development for the sector. They have integrity and have legacies that speak for them; therefore they will not fail in these new assignments. With Fashola and Kachikwu, the days of impunity are gone, I assure you. They will make gas available for power generation.
“Fashola should focus attention on the entire power value chain, and ensure that the funding gaps in the sector are bridged.
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