Unless the Federal Government intervenes, activities in the country’s public universities may be grounded to an abrupt halt over inability to pay an average N2.92 billion monthly to power the institutions.

From a total of N1.1 billion monthly bills across 11 Federal government-owned universities nationwide, electricity bills to these institutions have more than doubled, with most of them expressing fears of backlog.

While some of the institutions have already been disconnected from the national grid due to millions of unpaid electricity bills, others, who are still connected, are currently grappling with huge amounts of debts running into millions of naira.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in April, this year, approved a 300 per cent increase in the tariff paid by Band A customers from N68/KWh to N205/kWh.

The Vice Chairman of NERC, Mr Musiliu Oseni, noted that the rate increase will only affect 15 per cent of the country’s electricity consumers, who consume 40 per cent of the nation’s electricity.

These customers are classified under the ‘Band A’ service category, and the distribution companies must provide electricity for a minimum of 20 hours per day.

As a result, most of the federal universities, which fall within Band A have seen their monthly electricity bills quadruple.

For instance, the University of Lagos (UNILAG), which hitherto paid N180m monthly, was billed N300m; the University of Ibadan (UI) from N120m to N280m; the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) from N70m to N230m; Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, from N105m to N350m; Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, from N125m to N300m; University of Jos (UNIJOS) from N30m to N126m; Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) from N125m to N280m; Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) also moved from N175m to N280m.

At the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the institution’s monthly payment of between N80 and N100 million to Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has increased to N250m; University of Benin from N80m to N280m; Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology (ADUST) Wudil, Kano State, from N30m to N248m.

Already, the power supply to UNIBEN has been disconnected following its inability to settle outstanding bills. The development paralysed academic activities on campus, which led to protests from aggrieved students, and subsequent shutdown of the school.

Similarly, the electricity supply to ADUST has since been disconnected by the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), paralysing activities on campus.

The Dean of Students’ Affairs of the university, Prof. Abdulkadir Dambazau, said efforts to convince KEDCO to reconnect the institution, including the payment of N20 million, which, was the university’s enhanced monthly subvention from the state government, fell on deaf ears, as the company insisted on the settlement of the entire bill.

In the same vein, the Jos Electricity Distribution Company has disconnected UNIJOS from the national grid over debts amounting to N126m.

The College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) have also cried out over the outrageous bill charged by Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), following their migration to Band A, which has increased energy costs.

The healthcare institutions said they were jointly presented with a bill of N280m from the less than N100m they used to pay.

In fact, for about 10 days, electricity to the two institutions was disconnected, leading to a protest by medical students, who said the poor power supply would affect their performance in the forthcoming examinations.

The same scenario played out at the University College Hospital (UCH) a few days ago, as Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) disconnected the college over non-payment of its N400m electricity bill. The action has paralysed activities in the college, as patients, students, doctors and other medical personnel are left stranded.

The development has raised questions about the Federal Government’s Energising Education Programme (EEP), aimed at providing sustainable and clean power supply to public universities and seven teaching hospitals across Nigeria.

Planned to be developed in phases, the first phase was expected to deliver 28.5MW to nine federal universities and one teaching hospital, using solar hybrid and gas-fired captive power plants, but six years down the line, the multi-million naira project has been abandoned.

The nine universities are Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Ebonyi State; Bayero University, Kano (BUK); Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State; Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, and the Teaching Hospital, as well as the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Others are Nnamdi Azikiwe University Anambra State (UNIZIK); Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS); Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM) and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Gubi Campus, Bauchi.

Except for Alex Ekwueme, UDUS and the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, the EEP project has been abandoned in the other institutions selected for the first phase of the scheme.

The EEP Initiative was aimed at exploring alternative power supply for public universities to reduce the cost of running the institutions and boost research, and other academic activities on campuses.

While the search for alternatives to power generation continues, the institutions, in the meantime, have devised means to reduce electricity costs occasioned by the recent astronomical hike in tariff.

For instance, at UNILORIN, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, said with the monthly electricity bill jumping from N70 million to N230 million, it comes to a yearly value of N2.7 billion for the university, which is beyond the reach of the institution.

As a temporary measure to address the problem, Egbewole said the university management has taken energy-saving measures to reduce energy consumption on campus and mitigate the financial impact of rising tariffs on its budget.

He disclosed that the institution has established a new electricity schedule, which outlines specific on-and-off-peak hours for electricity supply to the main campus, staff quarters, the Government Reserved Area (GRA) staff quarters, and the hostels.

Egbewole, however, said the university is intensifying negotiations for alternative power supply solutions. Already, he stated that all new buildings under construction will include provisions for alternative power sources as part of their design.

At ABU, apart from reducing the consumption hours to save costs, there are fears that the new tariff may affect the students’ registration fees for the next academic session.

A top official of the university, who pleaded anonymity said with the new tariff, the school’s yearly electricity bill will jump from about N1.2 billion to N4.4 billion.

“With the new tariff, the electricity bill from April to December 2024 has tripled. It will be about N3.3 billion as against N997 million that the university envisaged for the nine months.

“The municipal charge paid for this academic session by the students to take care of electricity bills, water supply and sanitation was N15,000 per student. That amounts to about N750 million for a year for about 50,000 students. If you share the bills per student, that will be N88,000 per undergraduate/postgraduate student.”

The Implication is that charges from municipal services may increase by N70,000.

However, the university’s spokesperson, Auwal Umar, said the school, through its engineering department, had commenced moves to generate its own power.

ATBU’s Director of Public Relations, Zailani Bappa, said with its current funding challenges, the university cannot afford to pay the new electricity bill.

He lamented that alternative energy sources are also costly, and called on the Federal Government and non-governmental organisations to support the university to fully develop its pilot solar energy power plant at its main campus in Gubi.

Bappa, however, lamented that it only generates about five megawatts, which is not sufficient to meet the power consumption needs of the Gubi campus, let alone the Yelwa campus.

“We have laboratories and computer studios that demand a huge supply of electricity to operate for practical sessions in teaching university students. With adequate funding from the government coupled with support from other relevant organisations, the university has the requisite resources needed to develop a self-sustaining, solar power plant,” Bappa stated.

The director said with the availability of the solar facility, ATBU has the potential to develop a mini plant that would allow it to meet its power demands and supply electricity to nearby communities.

UNILAG’s Director of Communication, Mrs Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, said on average, when there are no issues of transformer fault, national grid collapse and scarcity of diesel, the institution gets 20 hours electricity, but when there are problems, the school tries to to provide light in academic areas during the day, while focusing on residential areas and access roads at night.

Alaga-Ibraheem, however, disclosed that the university is pursuing alternative power supply plans such as solar energy.

UNIBEN’s vice chancellor, Prof. Lilian Salami, said the 300 per cent electricity tariff hike is taking a heavy toll on Nigerian universities, insisting that most of the public institutions are on the verge of bankruptcy.

She said due to the high cost of diesel, light was being rationed in the institution for about four hours per day, as against the 24-hour, week-long power supply the students had enjoyed in the past, which led to protests and subsequent closure of the institution.

At the University of Port Harcourt (UniPort) the spokesperson, Dr Sam Kpenu, said plans are underway for the building of a solar energy facility in the institution to end dependence on public power.

“Fortunately, UniPort is a beneficiary of an independent power project in the South-South, funded by the Federal Government under a public-private partnership (PPP). Groundbreaking exercise has since commenced, and work is ongoing at the site,” Kpenu stated.

But experts have emphasised the need for public institutions to look inward to find solutions to their power needs.

They argued that these universities have engineering and water resources faculties, which should be able to provide the necessary expertise to generate power for use on campuses.

According to them, doing so will not only save the institutions money, it also make them more environmentally friendly.

Former Vice-Chancellors, Idowu Olayinka and Kayode Soremekun, said government should also support universities in generating their own power by providing funding and other resources.

With the right investment and expertise, they noted that public institutions can become more self-sufficient and reduce their reliance on the national grid.

An energy consultant, Tunbosun Olaoye, said constant electricity is attainable in institutions by generating power using available resources within Nigerian universities, particularly through the expertise of their electrical, mechanical, and water resources faculties.

This, Olaoye said, can be a sustainable solution in addressing power outages and improving energy self-sufficiency on campuses.

He pointed out that a consistent power supply would foster productivity, efficiency, and professionalism in research, teaching, and learning.

“For the faculty, there should be a collaboration across all boards and institutions to tackle the power outage issue, mechanical engineering faculty can lead projects to design and install wind turbines on campus grounds to harness wind energy for power generation. This type of collaboration with those in electrical engineering can lead to developing grid-connected or off-grid wind power systems,” he averred.

On his part, Kunle Akintunde, the Chief Executive Officer of Globa Energy Consultants, said water resources faculties can explore the potential for hydro-electric power generation, using existing water bodies or streams on campuses through a research-based approach between electrical and mechanical engineering faculties to design and implement small-scale hydro-electric systems.

He said, “The surest way for universities to invest in low-cost energy harvesting or energy scavenging technologies is to tap existing energy sources within the campuses. In this regard, faculties of engineering and technology should study and design smart power plants, which utilise renewable energy sources to generate electricity. (The Guardian)

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