Ordinarily, I felt like rising in defense of our country but this would have been akin to living a lie, knowing full well was telling the truth.

For a government that claims to appreciate the importance of economy, you’d think basic infrastructure like energy would be treated as priority. Sad to say that over the last eight years, the energy situation seems to have grown from bad to worse. The entire manufacturing sector is groaning under avoidable overhead. The failure of NEPA has, by extension, robbed many Nigerians of income as countless youths whom were denied white collar jobs that are self employed, who eked a living as barbers, hair-dressers, laundry operators and so on, have not been able to run their business without private electricity generators.

Similarly hard-hit are hospitality industry operators.

The huge over-head burden borne by managers that have been running on private electricity generators and alternative sources of power in this circumstance is best left to a conjecture. Nigeria’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have been in power for eight years but most of this period has been one of darkness for all inhabitants of Africa’s largest democracy. Sources at the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) reveal that as at September 2004, total electricity output was 2, 700 megawatts (MW). This is less than 25 percent of the national demand, put at around 12 MW. Not long after the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP regime assumed office on May 29, 1999, then Power and Steel Minister Chief Bola Ige, had promised an improvement in power supply within two years. In deed, it was believed the supply would rise to 4 MW by year 2000. Today it is down rather than improve, the situation has actually worsened! As a presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua voiced out the frustration of most Nigerians when he lamented the epileptic nature of electricity supply in the country at virtually every stop during his campaign, the then presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), promised to declare a state of emergency, if elected into office, on the power sector. The elections have come and gone and Alhaji Umaru Yar’adua is now the president but little has changed regarding that sector. Significantly, more than six months after assuming office, the president has neither declared his promised state of emergency, nor has electricity supply improved in the country.

Apart from issuing threats and giving deadlines, nothing seems to be happening in this all important sector, around which the entire nation almost revolves. It is pathetic that, after spending about N500 billion in the last eight years, electricity generation is still a mere 3,000 mega-watts.

It is no wonder that PHCN or NEPA, whatever they choose to call themselves are letting us to know our Sallah and Christmas greeting is HAPPY BLACKOUT. “What else is new “from the day of NEPA to PHCN, we have seen and heard it all. If it wasn’t those damn vandals, it’s something else. Nigeria wants to be one of the top 20th economies in the world by the year 2020, every time I hear that wishful statement echoed by the president and his entire cabinet I feel sad because as a nation we have never achieved a set of goal. It’s like aspiring to send astronauts to mars in 13 years when you don’t have a space protram. It’s a tall order. Until and unless we find a long lasting solution to the problem of electricity supply our nation will continue to under achieve. Billions have been poured into NEPA and PHCN within the past eight years, yet no positive out come. We are our own enemy, government come government goes, some 47 post independence are still groping in the dark. People are going deaf due to the perpetual noise of environmentally hazardous generators. I say never mind 2020 dream, am all for big dreams, but let’s talk about a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, not the year 2020. Sustained electricity for industries and homes will spur Nigerian economy, and enhance the quality of life of the citizens. Electricity is the life blood of a nation, without it, the much sought “foreign Investors” won’t show up. Why invest millions of dollars building factories in a country that cannot supply uninterrupted electricity power for a week. Is PHCN up to the task? I wonder why yar’adua is wasting time to scrap that parastatal despite the state of emergency he loud during his campaign lectures. Even some of the so called advisers on power like mokojuola, I do not know what he will advise. He has been part of the system for years and yet the situation is still the same. Is it now he has developed new idea on how to go about power? Mr. President if u doesn’t take serious action now we will hold you responsible. Obasanjo wasted Billions of Dollars on power with his own team, yet no result and we do not know whether the percentage of the money went to his pocket. God will judge all of them. If an egg breaks a palm kernel, then the stone should feel imperior. If some smaller countries in its entire ramification can provide constant power supply, then a self- acclaimed giant like Nigeria should bury its head in shame.