INFORMATION Minister, Labaran Maku, labours at the end of every Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting to explain the council’s decisions to sceptical State House correspondents. Most of the time, his briefings are about new contracts awards or augmentation of existing ones to the tune of billions of naira and it sets the inquiring journalists wondering whether FEC is just about approving contracts or augmenting others.

On a number of occasions, there were hot exchanges between the minister and some correspondents over the amount of money announced for capital projects at virtually every briefing which, to many of them, have not been justified by any visible results. In order to alter this perception therefore, Maku, arranged for a few correspondents to see for themselves what has been achieved with some of the money.  So, working with the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, he recently took a team of the reporters on tour of Egbin Power Station in Lagos, Olorunsogo Power Station in Ogun State and the Western Regional Transmission Station in Ikeja West.

There were encouraging signs during the tour that the goal of this administration to stabilise power supply could, indeed, be achieved. But, at the same time, startling revelations emerged on factors that pose enormous threat to the realisation of the stated objectives.

It was heartening to note that local engineers at Egbin Power Station have developed ingenious ways to solve its operational problems and have been able to restore faulty turbines and other equipment on their own, thus saving the nation about N200 million in the process. The plant is belting power and providing 25 per cent of the electricity available on the national grid, even though it is not working at installed capacity. Its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mike Uzoigwe, believes that, if the station were to get about N1.5billion from the Federal Government, it would restore the last of its six turbines and be in a position to supply extra 226 to the 1,080 megawatts of electricity it is generating at the moment.

The situation in Olorunsogo Power Plant is a sharp contrast to Egbin. The four years old plant, whose construction was 65 per cent funded with a loan from China while Nigeria paid the balance, has eight turbines with a combined capacity to produce 335 megawatts. But out of these turbines, only two are working because of lack of spare parts to fix other malfunctioning units. Chinese firm, SEPCO Electric Power Construction Corporation, which built and is operating it, was supposed to have supplied two years running spare parts to the station, but the firm did not do so. Worse still, its attitude towards Nigerian local engineers at the plants who are expected to take over the operation of the station from them. Many of the local engineers know next to nothing about the workings of the power station because there appears to be a deliberate attempt on the part of their Chinese counterparts to shut them out of the system. Virtually every unit is manned by a Chinese and, in many instances, there are unskilled labourers from China, doing jobs that can easily be performed by locals.

At the prompting of the reporters on tour of the plant, the acting CEO of the company, Mohammed Almu, revealed these disturbing developments. Most of the Chinese do not speak English; the few who do avoid the local engineers or refuse to answer their enquiries on maintenance knowhow of the units. When they carry out maintenance and Nigerian engineers come along and wanting to know how to perform some tasks, the Chinese walk away. Even more worrying for the local engineers is the fact that they have no operating manuals to rely on, as the available ones are written in Chinese. It is doubtful if such behaviour would be tolerated in China or anywhere else in the civilised world.

The Power Minister has already indicated that something would be done about Olorunsogo. However, these disclosures should also worry President Goodluck Jonathan who, week in and week out, explores ways to tackle the poor power supply situation in the country and he should initiate immediate steps to nip in the bud this Chinese danger to his power sector dream.

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