Nigeria Content Online

President Jonathan
declared his intentions for the 2011 election on Facebook two nights
ago, and will formally announce it on Saturday, September 18th. His
actions have been loud and clear in terms of what he believes should be
his priority for Nigeria, namely, electoral reform, electricity, and
Niger Delta. I am not sure in what order those priorities are, but if I
were one of his advisers, the order will be electricity, electricity,
electricity.

This is my premise:
once you have electricity, the other two will quickly fall into place.
For example, Nigeria recently approved close to $500 million for the
Independent Electoral Commission to purchase 120,000 computers and
other equipment to register Nigerian voters.

Even if the computers are battery operated, the batteries may need to be recharged at some point.

The people of Niger
Delta want to make progress and succeed, but they are handicapped by
lack of infrastructure, specifically electricity. If everyone in Niger
Delta has electricity, the problems will begin to disappear fast.

Nigeria, a country
of 150 million people generates 3,500 megawatts of power while the city
of Los Angeles, generates 7,200 megawatts for its 4 million residents;
yet, most Nigerian leaders, except President Jonathan have been aiming
for 10,000 megawatts for the last 10 years. Nigeria needs 150,000
megawatts now, and if you build it, the demand will be even more.

Nigeria’s
telecommunications has grown from 500,000 lines to 70 million lines in
less than 10 years, and the industry has attracted over $12 billion in
private investments, according to a statement made by President
Jonathan. Ten years ago, most people could have argued that Nigeria
should not dream of having 70 million lines, but now we know 70 million
lines is not enough. If we aim for 150,000 megawatts, the possibility
exists that we can attract over $100 billion in foreign investments
during the build out.

Jonathan was quoted
as saying, “South Africa, a nation of some 47 million people generates
about 50,000 megawatts. For Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people to
realise the ambition of becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the
world by the year 2020, we should be thinking of producing some 80,000
megawatts as soon as possible.”

The operative word
used by the president, is “as soon as possible”, that is why complete
privatisation and emergency measures are needed. Our first objective
should be 24/7 power for every Nigerian household immediately, by any
means necessary, regardless of vision 20/20. This is why Capital
Investment Group is offering to build, finance and deliver 4,000
megawatts within the next two years. We understand the urgency of the
situation.

We plan to use
distributive generation to provide power across Nigeria faster than it
is currently being done, by focusing on simultaneous build out in each
state. It is a lot easier and faster to build 10 megawatts of power in
one locality than it is to build one power plant of 1,000 megawatts.
So, if each local government concentrates on building 5 to 10
megawatts, it is even possible to deliver our 4,000 megawatts in less
than a year.

Eventually, Nigeria
may decide to build the 1,000 or 3,000 single power plants, but right
now we need power, and since the 1,000 or 3,000 megawatts plants take
at least 3-4 years to deliver, we must explore the fastest alternative
now, while we plan long term mega plants. Let us generate power now for
our people and give them the opportunity to build and manage the plants
themselves.

The recommendation
of the President’s task force may be on the right track, but it needs
to go further. It is okay for the federal government to have some say
in transmission, but having one entity control all transmission
throughout the country is courting the same disaster that has plagued
us for the last 30 years. Every state and every locality must be given
the opportunity to generate their own power by law.

Transmission should
be split up among three or four groups of independent public utility
commissions that are governed by specific laws. The members of the
commission may be appointed by the president or the state governor, but
neither the president nor the state governor should have the ability to
fire members of the commission, so that they would be able to discharge
their duties faithfully without the fear of termination or the desire
to favour any government policy that may be detrimental to the
stability of the industry.

To achieve
stability and succeed with the privatisation initiative, Nigeria needs
to attract investors, especially foreign ones. How do you attract
foreign investors when your country has just been declared the “13th
worst country to operate business”?

So Nigerian
leaders need to ask themselves, what can I do today to make my country
more stable. Is zoning more important or political stability?

Time is of the
essence, and the rest of the world is moving on; therefore, I say to
Nigerians, make your voices heard, and force the government to listen
to you.

Don’t just pray
for electricity, demand it. Don’t just pray for good leaders, help
elect some. Join our movement by logging on to “Nigeria let there be
light.”

Send us an email
if you want to make a contribution or have ideas on how we can deliver
power faster. We need you and Nigeria needs you.

Let’s go.

Toyin Dawodu is the Managing partner of CapitalInvestment Group Email: toyin@capvestgroup.com