Businesses and other activities have been grounded nationwide due to prolonged power outages, leading to economic losses and suffering of citizens.

Data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator, yesterday, indicated that as of 6 am yesterday, the nation?s generation was 3,752.37 megawatts, MW.

This, it was gathered, remains grossly inadequate for transmission and distribution to households and businesses that also find it difficult to pay for alternative energy sources, especially petrol and diesel, whose prices have risen to more than N1,000 per litre.

Checks by Vanguard indicated that most parts of Nigeria, which has suffered its eighth national grid collapse this year, were in darkness, yesterday.

Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Dr Chinyere Almona, told Vanguard yesterday: ?LCCI is deeply concerned about the frequency of collapse recorded by the national grid, the sole supply source of hydroelectric power nationwide.

?This year alone, we have recorded eight grid failures, with three being recorded within a week. The worsening performance of the national grid is an issue of concern to the business community.?

Similarly, President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Dele Oye, said: ?The recent spate of national grid collapses in Nigeria has raised significant concerns for our economy and the operational viability of businesses across the country.

?With the grid failing multiple times in recent months, businesses have been grappling with erratic power supply, which disrupts production lines, inflates operational costs, and ultimately affects profitability.?

The situation, It was gathered, is caused by vandalism in various parts of the nation, especially Northern Nigeria, which has not had supply for the past week.

The supply of power to the area was disrupted because of the vandalism of the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line, which supplies power to the area, thus requiring security backup to carry out maintenance.

Investigation revealed that operators of small and large-scale businesses experienced untold hardships trying to sustain their operations, especially as the prices of fuel and other commodities have hit the roofs in recent months.

A soft drinks dealer at the GSM market, Maiduguri, Borno State, Mallam Usman Abubakar, said: ?I usually spend N5,000 for ice block on a daily basis, but due to the blackout, it costs me more than N10,000 to cool my drinks.?

Reacting to the development weekend, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, raised concerns about Nigeria?s ongoing struggle with unreliable power supply and frequent national grid collapses.

The former vice president also condemned the blackout in the Southeast, Northwest, and Northeast regions of the country.

He stated that the ministry and departments responsible for addressing the blackout must quickly intervene to restore electricity to the distressed regions.

Posting on his official X. handle on Saturday, Atiku said his policy document, My Covenant with Nigerians, contained the most proactive plan for resolving Nigeria?s perennial power outages.

He wrote: ?In particular reference to the situations in both the Southeast and the entire states of the Northwest and Northeast, which have experienced complete blackouts in the past three weeks, every government department responsible for addressing the problem must act swiftly to restore electricity to these distressed geopolitical zones.

?Meanwhile, I still believe that my solution, as encapsulated in my policy document, My Covenant with Nigerians, remains the most proactive plan to lead our country out of perennial darkness.?

Atiku also called for the decentralisation of electricity to the states, stressing the need to grant states the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity for themselves.

He further emphasised the necessity for complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to transport the supplementary energy produced.

?There is an urgent need to remove the entire electricity value chain from the exclusive list and grant states the power to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity for themselves.

?I firmly believe that an industrial dispute with the Federal Government in the nation?s capital should not affect industrial activities in any of the states or cities in the country.

?Even as we focus on investments in additional generation, there is a compelling need for capacity in the complementary transmission and distribution infrastructure to transport the supplementary energy produced.

?Considering that energy opportunities exist in different parts of the country, our strategy should involve a viable mix of renewable (hydro, solar, wind, and biofuels) and non-renewable (coal, gas) sources.

??I wish to restate my earlier recommendation to encourage private investors to invest in developing multiple greenfield mini-grid transmission systems to be linked into the super-grid in the medium to long term.?

Similarly, Northern groups, under the auspices of Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, yesterday, blasted the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, and other sector players, over power outages across the northern states.

In a statement by the National Coordinator, CNG, Mr Jamilu Charanchi, the coalition said: ?The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, is deeply concerned by the ongoing power outage that has paralyzed large parts of Northern Nigeria over the past five days.

?This unprecedented blackout has thrown millions of households into darkness, crippled businesses, and worsened the already dire economic situation in the region.

?CNG reliably gathers that patients are already dying at various hospitals due to the unavailability of the hospitals to supply alternative means of power to utilize oxygen to save lives of patients in severe and critical conditions.

?Preliminary findings by the CNG indicate that this outage is the direct result of vandalism on the second Shiroro power line, which feeds the crucial Kaduna Station that distributes to other states in the North. We learnt too that the first other line has been faulty for months. Yet, no effort to fix it could have saved the current avoidable situation.

?We are particularly disheartened to learn that two towers along this line have not received serious attention at the beginning of the problem to promptly restore power.

?Furthermore, the only alternative source of supply, the Jos line, has repeatedly tripped, which the TCN currently said is working to fix, but cannot bring about a lasting solution. The current state of affairs is not just unacceptable but deeply alarming.

?Lack of transmission capacity for the North West and North East; The CNG, after engaging with experts, learnt that there is also a significant infrastructural gap as there is no transmission system to carry sufficient power to the North West and North East regions.?

Meanwhile, the coalition accused the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, TREP, of failure to meet its mandate after a budget of $1.661 billion to execute the project.

?Despite the establishment of the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, TREP), aimed at creating flexibility in transmission with a budget of $1.661 billion, mismanagement has hindered its progress.

?Additionally, over $500 million in savings, intended to support the Eastern Backbone transmission project ? which would have connected key areas such as Sokoto, Kaura Namoda, Katsina, and beyond ? has been mismanaged, further delaying essential connectivity.?

He also said: ?In addition, the current DisCo Load Allocation is alarmingly skewed. DisCos operating across the North ? including Jos (60 MW), Kaduna (50 MW), Kano (20 MW), and Yola (30 MW) ? receive only 160 MW out of the existing 4,249 MW capacity. In stark contrast, Lagos?s Eko and Ikeja DisCos cumulatively receive about 1,400 MW, while Ibadan, Benin, Enugu, and Port Harcourt also benefit from significantly higher allocations. This allocation imbalance not only limits the North?s development potential but also reveals a pattern of systematic neglect.

?The Need for Immediate and Comprehensive Action; This current outage has, in the last 120 hours, pushed our already struggling industries to the brink of collapse, with businesses suffocating under prolonged power failure. Our people, who are already grappling with economic challenges, cannot continue to bear the brunt of such systemic inefficiencies. Hospitals can no longer save lives but allow patients to die helplessly.

?To quote Professor Uwaifo, ?If you want to destroy a region, destroy its electric power supply. If you want to hold a region to a lower standard of living, you can do it by placing a limit on its supply of electric power.? This implies that some people are determined to destroy our region and keep us the poverty capital of the world by lowering our standard of living by denying our businesses, hospitals and industries access to electricity.

?The CNG calls on the Federal Government, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, northern governors, lawmakers and all relevant stakeholders to immediately expedite efforts to ensure power is restored to the North. This unacceptable outage must be treated with the urgency it deserves.

?We also demand a comprehensive review of the current electricity distribution framework to ensure fair and equitable access to power across all regions of the country. We call on the FG, TCN, and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to explain the rationale behind this lopsided allocation, given that the North is home to most of Nigeria?s hydropower stations. It is incomprehensible that the North is left with a minimal share of national power, especially considering the region?s critical role in the country?s power generation infrastructure.

However, TCN?s General Manager (Public Affairs), Ndidi Mbah, said the current outage affecting northern states for several days now was a result of vandalism of the Shiroro-Mando transmission line, a critical infrastructure that supplies electricity to the region.

She said in a statement yesterday: ?Prevailing insecurity in the area has delayed the immediate repair necessary to restore supply. However, as a temporary measure, TCN had rerouted bulk power supply through the Ugwuaji-Apir 330kV line, which recently snapped.

?TCN has been collaborating closely with the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to work with our engineers to access the vandalism site to enable them to effect necessary repairs. This is vital to ensure the safety of lives during the repairs.

?We remain steadfast in our commitment to overcoming these challenges because we understand the place of electricity in the socio-economic lives of the people and the extreme inconveniences this situation is causing the government and all electricity customers in all the affected areas. We pledge not to relent in doing everything possible to rectify the problems and restore power supply to the affected areas. (Vanguard)

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