Nigeria is one of biggest country in Africa with an estimated population of over 180 million people.Nigeria is 57 years old and also has a growing economy but the major challenge of this beautiful contry has been power and unemployment.But lets deal with power and how to solve it because i believe with power unemployment will reduce to a lower level.
With such great wealth the government has failed in handling the challenge of the power sector thereby making life uneasy for business owners and making it unavailable for home use.
Nigeria generates 7000mega watts for the consumption of her citizens i wonder how this will be enough for a population of over 180 million people.Every government policy has failed. Few years ago privatisation was introduced and it has done very little to bring about the necessary improvement in the power sector.
The citizens are conscious of the fake bidding and awarding exercises of the generation, transmission, and distribution branches of the former National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), which later became Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). The change of name never solved the problem. Instead, the situation got worse due to lack of commitment patriotism and incompetence.
The immediate past government quickly sold PHCN to select private investors, who bought the various stages of the relay-like company for penny. These investors who have taken over control of power output in Nigeria, have made the manageable situation even worse.It was far better when it was wholly-owned by the government .
The power generation has received very little or no upgrade at all from what was meant to serve a fewer number of people.
There are fourssources of power generation: Hydro, Nuclear, Coal and Solar.
Nigeria have disappointedly remained with hydro, without the renovation or construction of new dam. Hydro source of energy has served more serious- minded countries in the world. In Nigeria,the rain always takes the blame for poor power generation.
We have large amount of coal in Nigeria but invenstors frown out the cost of fanning coal to produce electricity.
Solar and Nuclear are quite expensive but i believe our government can invest in solar for now by separating the small villages from the national grid to a smaller solar grid installed just to power the small communities.I believe if this is done in 50% of the small communities in few year's to come power failure will become a thing of the past.
Gradually from communities Government can invest fully into solar as a source of national power supply.Change might not be instantaneously but let it be visible as the clock ticks daily. For now there is no sign of power improvement in Nigeria.
I will urge every Nigerian who has the financial balance to make use of green energy, as a source of power in their home's and businesses.
For firms into solar sales and installation i will advise they device a means to make solar installation cheaper for an average man.They could make payments installmental over a long period to enable an average man acquire a solar powering system.At the end of his/her payment the company will still make enough profits.
Till all this are put in place, the big question is who will bear the burden of the huge costs associated with investing in a new sources of energy? The investors right now don't have enough funds they can't even borrow from our local banks to improve power supply for numerous customers.
Funding from abroad, although is the best path to support this ambitious programme,it has the weakness of the Naira as a down side. But till there's is a change let do our best to light up our little localities and homes and also light up our streets.
TOGETHER WILL CAN LIGHT UP NIGERIA
