A Professor of Energy and Power Engineering, Osadolor Odia, has called for a state of emergency in power generation and distribution in Nigeria.
Odia, who is of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, while delivering the university’s 108th inaugural lecture on Monday, March 18, 2024, said the move would address the energy deficiency in the country.
The lecture is titled: “Exploration and Exploitation of Energy Resources: Implication for Man and The Earth”.
The don said no nation could attain the requisite development with a high degree of energy deficiency as currently being experienced in Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s electricity availability is, to say the least, abysmal, as Nigeria tops the list of countries with the longest annual outage duration in Africa with 4,600 hours.
“This is 3,200 hours more than the next country on the list, Niger Republic,” he said.
According to him, about 90 million (46 per cent) of the nation’s total population are not connected to the grid.
“Where the grid is available, which corresponds to 54 per cent of the total population, power is only available for between four and 15 hours per week.
“With only about 3GW availability, Nigeria’s power production falls far short of demand, which is the primary constraint to the nation’s economic growth.
“Nigeria’s power situation is truly miserable compared to the huge population and the desired rate of development,” he said.
He said with the nation’s population now in excess of 200 million, Nigeria would require a generation capacity of at least 60,000MW.
This, he said, would be in addition to available capacity of at least 40,000MW in the immediate future with a solid arrangement to double the generation and available capacities before 2035.
The national energy challenge, according to Odia, has, however, not gone beyond redemption but requires that certain steps be taken with precision.
He advised the Federal Government (FG) to consider the repeal of the privatisation of the distribution sector and the introduction of prepaid metering systems to be monitored through remote modular connectivity.
The privatisation exercise, he said, was inimical to rural development.
“Decentralise transmission by carving the nation into between 6 and 10 units and loop the units with gear switches to reduce the very rampant outages due to system failure and invest massively in generation among other things,” he said.
By Usman Aliyu
