JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH in this piece x-rays Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello’s stride in electrification projects in the state.
Regular power supply has been the bane of successive administrations in the country. Since Independence, all administrations have promised regular power supply but it has been all motion and little movement for the past 59 years.
It is instructive to note that Nigeria has now overtaken India as the country with the largest number of people (83million) without access to electricity in the world, the World Bank noting that about 47% of Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity, and those who do have access, face regular power cuts. In addition, the economic cost of power shortages in Nigeria is estimated at around $28 billion which is equivalent to 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to the ease of doing business report 2020, lack of power has been one of the major challenges facing the private sector. Hence, improving power sector performance, particularly in the non-oil sectors of manufacturing and services, which has been central to unlocking economic growth in the country, will take on added significance post-COVID-19.
However, some state governors have taken up the gauntlet to improve the power supply in their states determined to see potentials rather than defeat, even in this lack of electricity access challenge.
Kogi State, for instance, offers one of the most promising economic corridors in sub-Saharan Africa. It is strategically located in central Nigeria, and provides a confluence of both human resources and economic opportunities spanning sectors such as agriculture, minerals, steel, oil and gas, marine transport and tourism. However, like other parts of Africa and Nigeria, access to electricity, which is an underlying factor critical to the economic development of any society is parlous, even non-existent, in most parts of the state, especially the Kogi East Senatorial District.
This is why recent efforts by Governor Yahaya Bello to provide succour to rural Kogites in affected parts of Kogi East, home of the great and indefatigable Igala people, via the ‘Project Light Up Kogi East Project (PLUKE)’, is significant. The Governor inaugurated a PLUKE Committee headed by his deputy, Edward Onoja, in July of 2019 to undertake feasibilities and preliminary works for the project and it delivered on schedule.
The project was properly flagged off in June 2020 when materials mobilised for it arrived the state, including those imported from abroad. Work is now at 40% completion on the project which targets to upgrade critical electricity distribution infrastructure and enhance power evacuation from Itobe substation in Ajaokuta to most parts of Kogi East. This will increase the load capacity of evacuated power from 14.5 MW to circa 45 MW, thereby providing sustainable electricity to scores of communities spread across the nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Kogi East.
Whenever he discusses the Project, the Governor comes across as a man driven by more than his official obligations to good governance. He reveals that it is the fulfilment of a direct vow he made to God as a young man shuttling between Makurdi in neighbouring Benue State early in his working life. Driving across Kogi State on his nightly journeys, over a landscape marked by poor electricity infrastructure, he was particularly struck by the unmitigated darkness enveloping most of Kogi East once he drive over the Niger Bridge at Itobe. At some point he made a vow to God that he would change the narrative for them if providence ever gives him the chance someday. PLUKE is in fulfilment of that vow.
Kogi East is home to many economically viable mineral deposits, waiting for commercial exploration. There is no doubt that expanding electricity penetration in the region, among other factors, will attract lucrative mining and other interests to the district. The benefits of such potential investment on the host communities in job creation and revenue contributions to the financial purse of Kogi State through internally generated revenue (IGR) can only be imagined. It is even more strategic to look inwards for revenue generation in this era of dwindling allocation from the federation account.
It is common knowledge that graduates and young people imbued with vocational and artisanal skills hardly stay in rural communities where there is no electricity and other basic social amenities of life. They tend to move to cities where some of the aforementioned facilities are in search of greener pastures. The resulting rural depopulation and urban congestion create their own unique set of problems.
Bringing enhanced electricity supply to such rural communities will no doubt keep the youths back home which in the long run will help in the development of the areas and also cut down the problems associated with congestion and urban decay in the cities. Aside the aforesaid, it is given that Kogites in diaspora who are business-inclined will readily want to invest in their communities when there is regular and adequate electricity, among other vital considerations. In that wise, capital flight will be halted, there will be job opportunities for the teeming youths who are qualified in addition to expanding the profile and economic potential of the state. This is one of the latent benefits of the Governor Bello-led rural electrification in Kogi East.
Given the structure of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), where power generation and distribution are privatized; and Transmission and Rural Electrification are still under government purview, the Rural Electrification Agency invests billions of naira annually to strengthen and extend the electricity distribution grid, build substations, install transformers, provide Solar Hybrid Minigrids (isolated and interconnected) to rural communities, provide Solar Home Systems to rural households, Solar Street Lights, provide access to electricity to Universities, Hospitals, Markets and Economic clusters.
This initiative by Governor Bello complements numerous rural electrification efforts of President Buhari’s Government through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), across Nigeria generally, and in Kogi state specifically. The scope of PLUKE makes it perhaps the most extensive downstream electricity infrastructure project by a Nigerian state government ongoing right now. The political will to see the project through is clearly in abundant supply and it seems the state’s coffers, in spite of recent contractions, are wide open for it too. The man in Lugard House seems resolved to kill two birds with one stone – solve an agelong problem on one hand and lay the groundwork for a better tomorrow for Kogi through his interventions today.
Further, given that ‘provision of electricity’ is still under the Concurrent Legislative List of Nigeria’s constitution, which allows both Federal and State governments to regulate and invest in electricity, Federal and state governments’ roles are therefore critical in creating the requisite enabling environment and funds necessary to attract private sector investments into the space. Governor Yahaya Bello understands and recognizes this role as a leader, especially in realizing the socio-economic potentials of his state and improving livelihoods of his people, which is why he initiated this massive multi-billion-naira rural electrification of Kogi East Senatorial District.
Trust a strategic and far-sighted leader like Governor Bello to think in a new direction by siting one of his signature projects outside his own tribal areas, contrary to precedents set by previous leaders in the state. Not only that, the 4th Executive Governor of Kogi State is making full use of available synergistic resources, especially with the Federal Government, to extend his infrastructural footprints in the state.
The Executive Director, Rural Electrification Fund, Rural Electrification Agency, Nigeria, Dr. Sanusi Ohiare, a PhD in Rural Energy Development who is himself a Kogite, testifies to the Governor’s cosmopolitan approaches. “The Governor also understands his role as a facilitator of opportunities and investments in the power sector from both Federal Government, Private Sector and Development Finance Institutions. He has demonstrated this over time, and I was especially impressed by his doggedness and commitment to see that programmes of my agency (REA) in his state enjoy full state government support from start to completion.
Two key examples he said stood out for him: Firstly, is the Upake 100kWp Solar Hybrid Minigrid commissioned in 2019 in Ajaokuta, where the governor mobilized his state ministry of works to provide access roads leading to this extremely remote Upake village (the ancestral home of the Ebiras) 30 km away from the highway, and got a retinue of State government officials led by the Secretary to the State Government to represent the State during the commissioning.
Second worthy case, is his intervention and directive to provide all land title documents and expedition of payments of compensation at the Federal University of Lokoja permanent site, which the REA is providing 24 hours Solar Hybrid Minigrid for under the Nigerian Electrification Programme, funded by the African Development Bank. It is our hope that all things being equal, all encumbrances on this land are sorted soon, so that we can commence implementation, and the Governor commissions this project in no distant time.
Lokoja is also host to the North Central Zonal office, which has enjoyed state government collaboration in implementing our various projects and programmes seamlessly”.
In the spirit of the aforementioned, experts have called on the REA to continue to work with serious-minded states and Governors like Kogi and Governor Bello, to facilitate investments and rural electrification projects into the state, to justify the partnership and mutual objectives of universal access to electricity by 2030, in line with the sustainable energy for all goal 7 – affordable and clean energy.
Dr. Sanusi also said: “ The governor’s relentless efforts especially in regard to ongoing talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), so that planned Transmission Substations in Kogi East and Kogi West are built, as well as the Substation in Kabba Junction of Kogi Central, strengthened are legendary and pleasing. This will free up load from Substations in Kogi Central and increase evacuation capacities of Kogi East and Kogi West, thereby incentivizing requisite private investments in power generation in the two senatorial zones, and complementing the efforts of the Governor in lighting up Kogi, and opening up the state for industrial revolution and economic development.
“Hopefully, with all the efforts of both state and federal governments, especially with this light up Kogi initiative and the Siemens deal with Germany, complementing programmes of the REA, universal access to electricity will be one of the enduring legacies of the All Progressive Congress (APC), ably led by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Federal level and Governor Yahaya Bello at state level, long after they must have exited Government, as No tribe of human beings will ever forget a leader who gave them light when they needed it most!
Leadership newspaper 20th 2020