By OSCARLINE ONWUEMENYI

An energy expert, Mr. Stanley Austin, has blamed the increase in the rate of poverty in the country on the poor state of  power, even as he noted that the country could regain its position as a regional economic hub once it addresses the energy challenge.

According to Austin, who is a principal partner of Africonomie, an energy consultancy outfit based in London, United Kingdom, “The current power situation in Nigeria is very frustrating because it has stagnated Nigeria’s economic development, and constitutes a major setback in our quest to measure up with our peers around the world such as Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.

“It’s not news any more that many companies have stopped production in Nigeria because we lack steady power supply. Those that have not shut down completely have stopped production and joined the ‘import club.’ A good example is Dunlop Plc, which used to manufacture tyres but has resorted to importation of tyres because locally-manufactured tyres are no longer competitive in terms of pricing.”

He added that the cost of these industries shutting down is enormous, stating that the nation has not yet taken count of the losses. “With each factory that shuts down, job losses are immediate, and, in Nigeria where each worker feeds several other dependents, the poverty index keeps rising, so are the socio-political problems.

“We could go on and on, but one thing we have to bear in mind is that, until we get a good grasp of the power problem, the talk about Vision 20-2020 is a pipe dream.”

Austin, who spoke with our correspondent in Abuja at the background of the Energy and Power Summit (NEPS), said what the country required was a pragmatic policy that would forge partnerships among energy producers and investors such as banks and other international institutions.

According to him, “We need not spend so much time looking for who to blame because most governments set out with the perception that power is strategic to the development of economies and, therefore, allowed it to become exclusive to the government.

“However, we would not have found ourselves where we are at the moment if we had allowed private companies to actively participate in the power sector. It was convenient for previous administrations to continue treating the monopoly differently called NEPA, NEP Plc, and now, PHCN, as a Federal Government parastatals, instead of a potential gold mine.”

Austin stressed that if participation by the private sector had been encouraged earlier on, the competition associated with the private sector would have revolutionised the sector, while massive job creation both in the power sector and the attendant industrialisation would have followed.

He added that, “A lot of the manufacturers who  shut down production in Nigeria and moved to other African countries would definitely come back because Nigeria has the largest market in the sub-region and can boast of very high quality personnel; many jobs that were lost before would come back and new jobs even will be created.

In fact, I expect the current efforts by the government to give birth to a new Nigeria.

“The double digit unemployment rates that have lingered for a very long time would have been avoided,” he added. He noted that efforts by the government, especially the recent road map on power launched by President Goodluck Jonathan, gives hope that things could change.

“In fact, it’s going to be a game changer when the efforts start paying off. It will open new vistas in different aspects of life in Nigeria. At the moment, it seems too challenging but Nigeria has no alternative than to pursue the current efforts to its logical conclusion.

“The kind of interest and commitment exhibited by the Presidency so far, especially the recent Presidential Power Retreat at the State House is indicative that the President is fully involved in these efforts. If you study the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005, you would realise that what the government is doing is to ensure full implementation of the provisions of that Act,” Austin noted.

Further, he said, the Presidential Task Force on Power chaired by Professor Bart Nnaji ”has performed excellently so far.” It might appear early to assess its success but perhaps the best way to appreciate the work of the Task Force so far is by following the groundwork it has done in ensuring that the reforms are fully implemented, and the enormous opposition and resistance from PHCN.

He explained that NEPS intends to leverage the renewed vigour by the government to hands-off substantially from the power sector by providing an unparalleled opportunity to stakeholders- licencees of both generation and distribution companies, transmission companies, investors from all over the world, international financial institutions, regulators, law firms, banks, etc- to have a forum where relationships would be consummated.

“We intend to bring together all these parties to share ideas and interact with each other to identify areas of cooperation. Our intention is to reduce the time and resources companies spend in looking for partners by bringing all of them to a forum where they could have choices and within a few days be able to make quick decisions on partnership issues and then focus on developing their businesses,” he added.