Past and Contemporary Issues of Power and Electricity Supply in Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Community and National Development

Abstract

After over $20 billion dollars of spending in about two decades, Nigeria remains embarrassingly 
stagnated with only about 5,000 MW of power generation capacity. Nigerians have become so 
critical of the governments. The objective of this work is to identify the contemporary challenges 
and make recommendations for sustainable energy and power for sustainable growth and 
development. The sector is bedeviled with a number of challenges: Security of gas transportation 
and sabotage; time lag for completion of large projects; sabotage of generation, distribution and 
transmission equipment coupled with intractable labour crisis; and government policies, 
programmes and political will. There is multiplicity of potential for energy mix that can be 
explored and harnessed to improve the energy sources: Natural gas, hydro, coal, wind, solar and 
bio. It is suggested that any solution that will be long lasting and sustainable must, of necessity, 
address: the unalloyed political will in the political party and the governance; inclusion of a 
portfolio of short term projects that will deliver tangible results in a timely manner; resolution of 
satisfactory and equitable concerns of all stakeholders in the sector; adoption of strategies that 
will effectively mitigate all forms of sabotage; creation of a platform for system-wide 
infrastructure development in ancillary sectors; harnessing energy mix as the immediate 
environment can provide and support; and direct facilitation of economic multiplier effects and 
job creation. There must be education of members of the public, Genco and Disco staff on the 
ethics of the job, and safety and security in the industry.