Last Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari fired the erstwhile Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, in what he said was a move to "strengthen weak areas" in his government. Emmanuel Addeh writes that while the former minister's tenure remained largely uninspiring, there's the need for his replacement to hit the ground running with less than two years to the end of the current administration.

Just like the election of his former boss raised the hopes that a new Nigeria was in the offing, Mamman's appointment to oversee the beleaguered power sector was greeted with much enthusiasm.

The expectations were higher, given that he was taking over from the current Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, who many thought was seriously overburdened with two critical ministries, a development that perhaps tamed his much-talked-about uncommon capacity to deliver.

Reclusive, rarely seen, rarely heard, Mamman soon began to unravel, or to put it aptly, just refused to unravel in spite of all the initial high aspirations, fuelled by his boss's promise to finally give Nigerians reliable electricity supply.

With no clearly marked achievement in two years and no communication where they probably existed, Mamman will arguably go down in history as being the only head of a ministry who literally left Nigerians in the dark as to his plans and goals from when he took office till when he was given the red card a week ago.

Unwarranted Bickering

Like schoolboys, Mamman sought to, as put by his Media Aide, Aaron Artimas, "whip the agencies into line" because each of them were claiming autonomy.

The "sacking, unsacking and resacking" of a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), Marilyn Amobi, was one of the running battles he had with his lieutenants.

The former minister also had brushes with the former Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Mohammed as well as a former Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Damilola Ogunbiyi, who he indicated were constituting a wheel in the cog of the progress of the power sector.

Added to that, there was a major disagreement between the minister and the ministry of finance over whether he had the power to remove the head of NBET, which is under the ministry of finance. These unwarranted bickering consumed a lot of the energy that would have been channelled to providing Nigerians electricity.

As reticent as he was, Mamman never failed to denigrate his predecessors. For instance, in responding to his critics who raised questions over his qualification to head the all-important power sector, Mamman said last July that people like one of his predecessors; Prof. Barth Nnaji would have transformed the ministry if performance was based on paper qualifications.

In addition, he claimed that he inherited a chaotic sector from his predecessor, Fashola, who's now overseeing the works ministry.

Nigeria's Electricity Supply

In one of his rare appearances on television, 63-year-old Mamman countered Nigerians who constantly complain of erratic supply of electricity, insisting that the entire country now enjoys between 18 to 24 hours of power everyday.

Mamman, who spoke in an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari administration had improved the infrastructure in the power system in the last five year even when Nigerians were living in utter darkness.

But his position ran contrary to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), which coincidentally, released a statement at the time, listing the lack of electricity as Nigeria's biggest challenge.

Not a few Nigerians thought it was an insult for the minister to barefacedly tell them that power supply to their homes had become stable even when it was obvious that it was far from the truth.

The minister disclosed that some power plants had been completed by the current administration, which he said would further get better with the coming of Siemens AG, a German company into the system.

He said: "The President has come out with Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to ensure that all infrastructure is improved. So, many substations are now in place across the country. We have improved the 330 KVA, which is the highest voltage in the country.

"We have also improved the 132 substations. Kashimbilla has been completed which is 40mw. We have reached up to 70 per cent of Zungeru in Niger. One of the biggest projects, the Mambilla, which has been lingering for over 40 years, has commenced.

"We have finished the feasibility studies, the land and area survey and waiting for contractors to mobilise to site. We have improved our services. Before this government, they gave light less than 10 hours a day, but today I can tell you that we give light from 18 to 24 hours in a day." Not a few Nigerians took that statement with a pinch of salt.

Inchoate Mambilla Project

Having hailed from Taraba, stakeholders expected the erstwhile minister to make some headway in the over four-decade Mambilla hydropower project, located in the state. But till he left last week, most of the issues hampering the project remained unresolved.

Originally conceived in 1972, the capacity of the project was increased to 3,050MW in 2012 and has practically been put on hold due to administrative and legal issues.

Set up to comprise four dams and two underground powerhouses, having 12 turbine generator units in total, as part of the plans to solve the perennial problem in the power sector, Mambilla is expected to be Nigeria's biggest power plant.

In addition, it is expected to produce approximately 4.7 billion kWh of electricity a year and will generate up to 50,000 local jobs during the construction phase.

Over 40 years later Mamman said that under his superintendence, the federal government had finished the feasibility studies, the land and area survey and was waiting for contractors to mobilise to site as well as commencement of payment of compensation to host communities in Taraba state.

Just when everyone thought the project was gradually taking off, Sunrise, the first contractor for the project resurrected, flaunting documents that it said entitled it to some form of compensation for alleged breach of contract, came into the picture.

Accusing the government of defaulting on a $200million settlement agreement it entered with the company, Sunrise contended that the deal was supposed to make it relinquish all claims to the $5.8 billion project, which has now been revised.

A $200 million deal brokered by the ministry of power and the ministry of justice to settle the matter out-of-court has also met with a brick wall as the $2.3 billion project continues to remain in the doldrums.

Siemens Deal Forgotten?

With the noise that heralded the signing of a deal with Siemens AG of Germany last year, one would have thought that government would keep the same energy in the execution of the agreement. However, enthusiasm has long waned with no further information concerning the project.

The agreement, which was meant to be implemented in phases was expected to see the upgrading of 105 power substations and the construction of 70 new ones.

Under the deal for which the government had made an initial N8.6 billion commitment, about 3,765 distribution transformers will be installed and 5,109 km distribution lines will be built with a potential generation capacity of over 13,000 mw as opposed to the current transmission of 4,500mw.

In phase one, 7gw was expected to be achieved between then and end of 2021, with the upgrading of transmission and distribution of the TCN and Distribution Companies (Discos) expected to contribute an additional 2gw.

For phase two, the government said that 11gw will be achieved between 2021-2023, with full use of existing generation and last mile distribution capacity, while the phase three will see the achievement of 25gw between 2023-2025 with appropriate upgrades and expansion in generation, transmission and distribution.

But since the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the payment of E15.21 million (N6,940,081,465.20) offshore and N1.708 billion onshore as part of Nigeria's counterpart funding for the power deal, not much has been heard.

The deal also involves Siemens' support for the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), towards improving metering in the electricity industry in the country.

Funding without Impact

In a note marking his one year in office, Mamman stated that the federal government had secured a cumulative sum of $6.150 billion for the funding of various capital projects in the power sector.

He said that as a market in transition, the sector had been experiencing teething challenges, adding that due to lack of infrastructure, the sector was unable to effectively utilise its generation capacity of over 12,000MW and incurred over N254 billion as the cost of unutilised capacity.

"I am glad to state that to date, a total sum of $6.150 billion has been secured for infrastructural development" he said.

A breakdown of the funds showed that the Siemens deal would gulp $2.3 billion while the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) will consume $1.6 billion.

In addition, the federal government noted that a $550 million facility had been secured for the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) from a World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) arrangement, including another $1.7 billion to ensure that the power industry becomes more efficient.

It stressed that with the $6.150 billion in funding, the present administration has commenced the implementation of critical infrastructure that will enable the country to achieve generation, transmission, and distribution of 25,000MW of electricity by 2025.

However, the impact of this funding is yet to be felt by Nigerians, most of who still live in darkness and deploy air-polluting generating sets as a source of their own electricity.

Charity Begins Abroad

Despite the shortage of power supply in the country, Mamman opened negotiations with the Republic of Chad in an agreement that would see Nigeria commence the supply of electricity to the North-central African country.

To consummate the agreement, the Chad Minister of Energy, Mrs Ramatou Houtouin, flew into Abuja, while the Nigerian team was led by top officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

A few months earlier, the Chadian ambassador to Nigeria, Abakar Chachaimi, asked for his country to be connected to Nigeria's electricity grid during a visit to the minister in Abuja.

Chachaimi argued that connecting Chad to Nigeria's electricity grid would further enhance the historical and economic collaborations between both countries.

If the agreement is eventually reached, Chad will add to the number of countries that depend partly on Nigeria for their electricity needs, including the Republic of Benin, Niger Republic and Togo. For a country that could not power itself, seeing the logic in the minister's thinking was almost impossible.

Lowering Performance Bar

Under Mamman, the ministry of power and the agencies celebrated what should ordinarily be seen as the shame of a nation, for what it usually terms improvements.

"Successful transmission" of a peak of 5,584.40MW was worth celebrating, where smaller and less endowed nations like South Africa could boast of total domestic electricity generation capacity of 58,095 megawatts.

Mamman, was ecstatic about the news of the 'peak performance', describing it as "impressive". Tagging a 5,5840mw power transmission as "impressive", to many Nigerians, was the height of the celebration of mediocrity.

That in 2021, a country of over 200 million people, sector leaders would be celebrating just over 5,000mw as an achievement when Brazil with almost the same population and conditions as Nigeria's generates 150,000MW, according to the International Energy Agency (EIA), beats all rational imaginations.

Added to that, between February 17 and last month, the national grid had experienced at least four collapses, including a partial collapse leading to power outage in some parts of Nigeria in the second month.

Also, extensive power outage was experienced in March when 18 plants, accounting for most of the electricity collapsed; in May when another system collapse took place and in August when the power grid failed.

Yet the position of the ministry was that grid collapses had reduced since the minister took over power.

Hospitalisation and Denial

After Buhari relieved him of his job, there were news reports that the former minister collapsed when he for wind of the information and was thereafter receiving treatment in hospital.

But Mamman told BBC Hausa, that he had been ill before he was fired, noting that he was instructed that he needed some 'rest', adding that he had foreknowledge of his sack.

He maintained that on Monday night, Buhari called him on the phone to inform him of the impending sack and thanked him for his support for his administration.

Whatever difference that explanation made, one thing is clear, Mamman met Nigerians in darkness and left them in darkness.

Little Progress in Metering

Under Mamman, the federal government began a national metering programme, which according to the government has seen the distribution of about 750, 000 units to Nigerians.

Although, millions of Nigerian homes remain unmetered, Mamman said the scheme funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was to end estimated and arbitrary billing for electricity.

Defending His Achievements

But in a note, Mamman who thanked Buhari for granting him the opportunity to serve in his administration, said during his stint, he made giant strides, but failed to list them.

"My sincere gratitude also goes out to everyone at the federal ministry of power and its supervising agencies, without your tremendous and selfless efforts, we couldn't have recorded the giant strides we achieved in the past two years," he wrote.

Agenda for Aliyu

No doubt, the job of the new minister of power, Abubakar Aliyu, is clearly cut out. Nigerians are not asking for the impossible. They simply want stable power supply and commensurate payment for what is consumed.

The former Deputy Governor of Yobe state and erstwhile minister of state, works and housing must hit the ground running and ignore the temptation to begin new fights.

Aliyu must realise that this is not the time to pull his weight in the wrong direction. He must work assiduously to complete ongoing projects where they exist instead of chasing shadows and must imbibe the culture of talking to Nigerians about progress and challenges.

Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English