
The plans by the Federal Government to concession Zungeru and some other power plants have been adjudged by prominent energy sector stakeholders as a laudable strategy that can boost power generation and distribution in Nigeria, if well implemented. The stakeholders are Senior Vice President, Gas Commercialisation, Genesis Energy, Mr Patrick Udechukwu, and a former President of Nigerian Meteorological Society (NmetS), Prof. Clement Akoshile. They spoke in separate interviews with New Telegraph over the weekend.
Recall that the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had approved Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited (MESL) as the preferred bidder for the concession of Zungeru Hydroelectric Power plant for a fee of $70,000.25 per year for a period of 30 years, according to a statement by Head, Public Communications, Bureau for Public Enterprises, Ibeh Uzoma Chidi. Akoshile, who is a former Director, of the Renewable Energy Centre, at the University of Ilorin, said the plan to concession the plants was laudable but harped on the implementation. He advocated that upright and knowledgeable people who are patriotic should monitor and oversee the implementation. He warned that without good implementation of the project, the plan would not be beneficial to the nation. Akoshile said: “The plan is good.
I pray that the energy will come up. I pray that it will be successful. “When you add to our energy, it helps us more. It reduces strain on what is available. I attended an annual energy event in Lagos. The companies that produce electricity and the companies that distribute and the government are all lagging among themselves. “This one will say because this one was not able to do this and that and the other one will say, “No, I did this, I did that.
They were arguing, instead of solving the problem. The discos want to get their money. “The government has promised them something and the government said they have fulfilled many of those things the generators said they have done enough and they now said distributors are the ones that are not distributing enough of what has been produced. “If they concession the Zungeru, I hope they will be able to utilise it and distribute it appropriately so that people can benefit from it and not just to say we have generated. Along with it, they should be thinking of mitigation of disaster so that the process will not be where all the neighbouring countries will run into flood disaster by the control of the system. “They should also ensure that is addressed to safeguard lives and properties to benefit both agriculture and the people around.
It will be good if they can do it and make sure that the people are worthy and not they will just say they will do it, in five years, they will upgrade their money and in another five years, they will upgrade their construction and not finish it.
“Let them be people who are serious and who will keep to their word and also the govenrment keeps to its words. It is unfortunate that many things go underground and why we do not have success on these things, they do not tell us and they know. “They will tell us that they will construct the road in 24 months and only after 18 months, they will say the value has changed and now they will say it is 36 months completion period and close to 36 months, they will change that it will not be close to 48 months.” He added: “So the company they are going to give it should be serious. If they say they will do it in two years, let it be done in two years and ensure that it is done and not milking us for nothing. “A laudable idea is considered laudable because it can prosper and benefit people and the ground is prepared for future development. When they are doing this, those are supposed to be in their head. But it is unfortunate that many laudable ideas in Nigeria are in research centres, both scientific, social, engineering and so on which are not utilised. “These ones they are thinking of what, it is not that it is bad, but it is the operation that is always problematic. The idea is good and excellent. If they work well, they will make the nation come up. But how they make it work well is the problem. I have no problem or condemnation of the concept. The concept is good but the operation and the monitoring of the operation are the ones to be worried about. I pray that they will have God-fearing supervisors to make it do well. If we do not have upright people do it well, we will still be in the same problem. “The idea is good but let them have goodly supervisors who can report well. Maybe there should also be other monitors of the supervisors.” On his part, Udechukwu explained that concession was different from privatisation. He stated that to make the FG’s concession plan beneficial, professionals, who are skilful in developing and operating similar-size facilities, should come on board. He urged the FG to ensure transparency in the process and advised indigenous investors to grab and optimise the opportunity. Udechukwu said: “The plan to concession power plants in Nigeria will improve electricity generation and distribution. I believe the capital, and the investment required to do this, unfortunately, the government does not have the balance sheet to do it. The government does not have the resources to do it. Going by concessioning, PPPP is the most practical avenue to get those power plants operational and to keep them operational.