Nuhu Somo Wya, minister of state for Power, in this interview with Anza Phillips, assistant editor, explains how the roadmap to delivering stable power supply to Nigerians will be achieved. Excerpts:

Newswatch: One of the promises made by the President to Nigerians as a priority is the provision of stable electricity supply. As the minister in charge of the sector, can you tell us to what extent this has been achieved?

Wya:   Yes, Mr. President promised the nation that he will stabilise electricity and he did that with seriousness and every level of transparency. He first established the presidential action committee on power which he himself personally chairs. There was also the presidential task force on power that is made up of experts from all  walks of life to ensure that things are done expeditiously, sustainably and professionally to ensure that Mr. President fulfils the promise he made to the nation. The ministry of power which is the implementing body, on its own, set up a project monitoring unit. Together, we have been able to assess the present infrastructures in power with the aim of   addressing the necessary issues. We have made sure that the quantum of electricity we have in the system is sustained and delivered to our customers in a sustainable manner without the past experiences of system collapses and epileptic supplies. At the moment, we have been able to achieve that. That means, for instance that, if you are having two hours of electricity, you will have two hours of electricity without a blink. Mr President has also ensured that the current assets will be rehabilitated. We are rehabilitating Kainji, we are rehabilitating all the thermal power plants across the nation. And indeed, the NIPP which is the one that will bring the quantum of power we will need in this nation is going to deliver above 5000   megawatts. I’m happy to let you know that two turbines are already churning out electricity from Olorunsogo power plant. This is one of the NIPP project that have come on stream and is delivering power at the moment. To be specific, Mr. President  has promised the nation stable electricity and we have already stabilised what we  have at the moment and are already getting to a level that Nigerians will realise that Mr. President means business and the problem of electricity in the country will soon be a thing of the past.

Newswatch:     Let’s be specific. How soon do you think this can be actualised, to get about 80 percent stability?

Wya:   Now, in terms of stability, we have more than 80 percent stability of the current generation capacity. When you say stability, it means power will be sustainable, it will not go off and come back. Of course, we are not giving you 24 hours yet as that will take a bit of time. But the current power we have is such that it  will not destroy your equipment anymore, no more epileptic like we used to have before. Fluctuations will definitely stop. By the end of April, two other turbines will  come on stream. We have a clear programme of work and a means of completing all these projects. So, by the year 2013, we will have a minimum of 10,000 megawatts of electricity to be delivered to the Nigerian populace.

Newswatch:     What are the major challenges you encounter in the quest to deliver stable power to Nigerians?

Wya:   One of the major challenges we have, emanates from the  roadmap to address the power sector development and that roadmap is anchored on the power sector reform, an Act that was passed by the National Assembly since 2005. In this reform, one of the principal things that is to take place is the privatisation of PHCN. We are to privatise PHCN by selling a minimum of 51 percent of all the thermal generation plants to private managers, and this is to ensure that these generation plants are run sustainably and effectively. Again, the distribution companies, eleven of them, we are selling a minimum of 51 percent of it to the private sectors, and it will be private sector driven. The transmission company will be 100 percent government ownership, but with private sector management. The hydro plant will be 100 percent government ownership but with private sector management. Now, the challenge we have here is with our workforce. They seem not to have understood the advantage of what government is doing and the advantage is very clear. When we open up the sector to private sector participation, it opens up more investment opportunities, the banks are more willing to lend money to private sector investors than to government parastatals because the government parastatals are not being managed efficiently and are not able to pay back their liabilities as at when due. The major challenge, therefore, is to make our people understand that this reform is for the benefit of everyone, starting with the workers. The work force is now going to have a more effective management that will drive the operation more efficiently and in fact improve on their benefits. They will be earning better salaries and quicker decision making processes be achieved so that they will be enjoying their work and also improve on their standard of living. These are the benefits which the workers have not understood and for them to appreciate and partner with us to ensure that these process is done sustainably.

We have already commenced by showing the political will and compassion. We also want the partnership of the workers by ensuring that their monetisation arrears which have been there for more than seven years are paid this year. About N57billion was paid to workers as monetisation arrears. This is one of the single tranch of payment that government has ever committed to workers in this country and this is to show how well meaning the government is and that government does not wants to shortchange the workers in this sector. The government want the workers to be partners in the development of the sector.

Newswatch:     Don’t you think that the fears of the workers is that they mighty lose their jobs if the company is privatised like what happened in NITEL?

Wya:   I understand, in the case of NITEL, up till date, NITEL has not been sold whereas in our own case we are going to sell this entities while the workers are there. I have said times without number that no private sector man will want to throw away its capable hands if it wants to do good business. I want to assure you that our workers are very committed, they are experts. What they can do, you cannot learn in the classroom. There are things they have learnt over the years through experience and no well meaning investor will like to discard such workers. In any case, our ambition is to move our current generation capacity of 4000 megawatts to 40,000 megawatts within the next 10 years. For us to get to that threshold, we need more workers and these people don’t grow on trees and there are quite a few of them within our society today, so you don’t need to joke with your work force that you have taken so much time and resources to train and build.

Newswatch:     Can you tell us how much the country has spent so far in the process of meeting the current electricity generation and transmission target?

Wya:   People have been flaunting all kinds of figures on what has so far been spent. When you say, what has been spent so far, what are you really talking about? It is very confusing, it is like asking what Nigeria, as a nation, has spent so far. All our monies come from the budget. It is very easy to find out how much has been spent in the sector so far by going to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Budget office to find out what has been appropriated to the power. The other major source of expenditure in the power sector is the NIPP. The NIPP is a project that consists of ownership of the federal government, state government and local government and these were as a result of expenditure culminating from excess crude revenue. The three tiers of government jointly agreed that they will use that excess crude revenue to address the power challenges of this nation and that was how the NIPP concept came about and this money is being handled by a board called the NDPHC-Niger Delta Power Holding Company. The board is headed by the vice-president as the chairman, with six governors representing each of the six geographical regions of the country as board members with the ministers of power and minister of finance as other members of the board. Today, I can tell you, within this administration, we have not spent more than five billion Dollars on the NIPP project.

Newswatch:     Can we ascertain from you if the 4,000 megawatts being brandished by some aides of Mr. President has actually been achieved?

Wya:   We now have over 4,000 megawatts. I can explain to you why, I say that we now have stable electricity supply. There are no more system collapses, there are no more fluctuations, that is because the capacity we have, we are holding back some capacity to regulate the frequency in an automatic mode. We indeed have achieved over 4000 megawatts of electricity but we have mechanism of automatic voltage regulation and frequency regulation in such a way that we have sustainable and smooth flow of electricity in Nigeria and I want to tell you, we are going much beyond that very shortly.

Newswatch:     We want you to make a comment on why you think Mr. President should be voted back into power by the electorates as we approach the forthcoming Presidential election.

Wya:   It’s  very simple. This is an administration that is well focused, this is an administration that is not spending money aimlessly. This is an administration that has articulated its position, has looked at the key sectors of the economy and identified what needs to be done. Infrastructures is one of these and power is one of the cardinal challenges that any country that wants to develop must face squarely. Mr. President has unveiled a roadmap, a clear strategy on how to face the challenges and he is tackling it headlong. This is the first time that the infrastructural need of the country is being addressed very sustainably, very transparently and with all the political will that they deserve. If we give Mr. President this chance, we will see a total transformation of these country and we will realise our dream of being one of the 20th most developed economies of the world by the year 2020.