FOR obvious reasons, the recent report that the bulk of public universities and tertiary hospitals meant to benefit from a $105 million worth of special intervention in electricity supply are still virtually in darkness six years after must be disturbing to the Nigerian public. According to the report, apart from Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Ebonyi State; Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) and the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM), the intended beneficiaries are not enjoying any supply from the power stations, as the project is in various stages of decay. Launching the Energising Education Programme (EEP) to provide sustainable and clean power supply to public universities and seven teaching hospitals across Nigeria in 2018, the Federal Government indicated that the project would be developed in phases, with the first leg expected to deliver 28.5 MW to nine federal universities and one teaching hospital using solar hybrid and gas-fired captive power plants. Phase one of the EEP being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) was targeted at benefiting 127,000 students, 28,000 personnel of universities, and 4,700 staff in teaching hospitals. It aimed to power 2,850 streetlights and end the regime of generators.
The EEP project included the provision of an independent power plant, upgrade of existing distribution infrastructure, street lighting to improve security within the campuses, and the development of a world-class training centre on renewable energy for each university. The project was said to have received $105 million in support from the World Bank and included the establishment of state-of-the-art workshops and training centres in the institutions. Sadly, the project is in limbo in universities like the University of Lagos and the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Bayero University, Kano (BUK); Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State (UNIZIK); Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM); Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Gubi Campus, Bauchi and their teaching hospitals. According to the authorities of the universities, the materials brought to their institutions for the project are rotting away as the contractors have abandoned the sites. The institutions are still incurring huge electricity bills while struggling to run on generating sets.
This development is indeed depressing. Just how can universities and teaching hospitals lack stable supply? How then are they to deliver on their mandate of aiding societal progress and development through cutting-edge research? What happened to all the lofty promises made while kick-starting the project and the funding support provided by the World Bank? Why have the authorities of the universities and teaching hospitals not spoken out six years after the electricity project involving solar hybrid and gas-fired captive power plants should have been installed and running efficiently? Surely, it is damning news that where the solar plants were installed at all, they have been subjected to damage through rainfall while the institutions lack the financial wherewithal to fix them. The government must explain why contractors have abandoned the site and mobilise them back to the site.
If anything, the government’s abandonment of the project in the select universities and teaching hospitals after raising the hope of the beneficiaries and even securing funding from the World Bank more than six years ago speaks glaringly to the ineffectiveness and incapacity of the government and the public service structure in the country. For what really has the government been able to deliver all these years? Nigerians have always been treated to dashed hopes as the government expends resources on frivolities. Almost in all cases, there is nothing concrete to show as evidence of governance beyond the luxurious lifestyles of government officials and their families emanating from a predatory approach to the commonwealth. Since 1999, successive governments have been channeling monies into the bottomless pit of power, pretending to be interested in increasing the quantum of electricity available to the people. Nigerians continue to be asked to ‘manage’ and to expect a miracle from only 4000 megawatts of distributable electricity for an estimated population of almost 230 million. This is the same way that successive governments have been unable to complete the mere 167 kilometers of road between Lagos and Ibadan since 1999.
The idea of National Identity Number’s (NIN) use in plugging almost all loopholes about identity and security has been realised more on paper than in reality. And not even the automation of the processes of procuring national passport under the aegis of the Ministry of Interior has been able to deliver on its promise as yet. The way its processes are dotted with failure in a wholesale manner, it seems as if the government in Nigeria is not meant to achieve anything concrete or deliver on any identifiable objective. This is the sense in which we see the case of the botched electricity project for the universities and teaching hospitals. It is the responsibility of those who have saddled themselves with the duty of governance at the moment to positively change the current and persisting negative narrative about government and its capacity. We hope that this is something that the government will treat as important if only to jumpstart the process of positive change.
