Mkpoikana Udoma
06 January 2019, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED, has said that for the country’s power sector to grow significantly, there must be a conscious effort to take politics away from the sector.
Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, told our correspondent exclusively that national interest must be placed above personal interest, adding that it will be difficult to make progress in the sector until every Nigerian sees themselves as an important stakeholder in the sector.
Oduntan explained that the power sector can be improved upon in the next five years, but the policy direction must be looked into.
He said ANED has before now intimated the Federal Government on the need to expand the national grid for efficient wielding of electricity from the generation companies by the transmission company.
He regretted that Nigeria was celebrating the generation of 7,000mw whereas its counterpart like South Africa with less than half the population of Nigeria generates over 46,000mw.
According to him, “There is need to take politics away from the power sector. The power sector should be on its own, and people must know that they need to pay for this product for it to be available.
“National interest should be above personal and selfish interest, we should put the nation first, by doing our best as patriotic citizens.
“It is a shame that we are celebrating 7,000-8,000mw, when the population is almost 200million, whereas South Africa with 64million people is generating 46,000mw and they are not celebrating it. As the population grows, the power generation and distribution to the people should also grow.”
On way forward for the nation’s power sector, Oduntan disclosed that ANED has proposed a strategy named ACC, which according to him means Alignment, Collaboration, and Cooperation.
He said it is imperative that the power sector must be aligned in such a way that the transmission company and the distribution companies must be able to wield every amount of megawatts generated by the Generation Companies.
“We believe that there is something that is missing which we all we need to do, in ANED we call it ACC, which means alignment, collaboration, and cooperation.
“By alignment, we need to align the power sector, such that if we are generating 7000mw, we need to have a transmission grid that can wield 7000mw, we must also have a distribution network that can distribute 7000mw. Just the same way that if you don’t align your car properly, there will be a problem.
“By collaboration, we all must work together to ensure sustainable development in the power sector.
“While cooperation means that we all must cooperate, to move the sector forward, especially the customers, instead of stealing energy and vandalising power equipment, they need to see these infrastructures as their own.”
