Politically speaking, there is no gain-saying the fact that the bedrock of industrial growth in every society is energy self-sufficiency. It is therefore not a surprise that Nigeria is currently at a low level in her industrial growth journey with the shutdown or outright relocation of several industries to other countries because of poor power supply.

With the recent appointment of Olu Verheijen as Special Adviser on Energy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigerians are eagerly looking forward to the repositioning of the power sector for rapid industrial growth. This excitement derives from the fact that her appointment is like putting a round peg in a round hole, given her qualifications and competence as an expert in energy finance, natural gas and renewable sectors.

Let it be stated that although there have been competent appointments in the past to oversee the power sector, the missing link has always been the absence of the political will to take positive and effective decisions in the sector. However, one exemption was when the former Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Gur Mohammed, took the bull by the horn and implemented the free governor response policy in the face of stiff resistance by energy players who were hitherto enjoying the arbitrary behavior of pushing their energy output into the grid regardless of the system demand thereby over supplying energy thus pushing the system frequency above statutory limits, which often caused instability and led to the collapse of the grid on many occasions.

As an expert, this is not an attempt at agenda setting for the SA, Energy but to remind her of the herculean task before her and the need for her to develop the political will to reposition the sector because Nigeria has no choice but to leapfrog her present state if she must play the role expected of her in the international arena as the leading black nation on earth.     

In line with the above, the SA, Energy should adopt a pragmatic and multi-dimensional approach to finding lasting solutions to the challenges confronting the sector in Nigeria.

There is need to address basic issues like the adequate provision of meters to customers and assisting Discos to attract investment to improve their fragile networks, especially the 33kV and 11kV lines as well as increasing the number of available Injection stations for effective power delivery to customers.

For effective system operation, provision of fundamental tools like functional SCADA, adequate spinning reserves are necessary.

It is necessary to pay attention to the issue of power quality in order to optimize the national grid by installing more power quality equipment such as Reactors, Capacitor Banks at critical nodes etc.

It is necessary to pursue more renewable sources of energy to expand the generation mix and also consider the exploration of other sources like coal that is abundant in Enugu, Kogi, Benue areas. Efforts should be intensified to woo investors to the generation arm of the value chain so as to increase available generation capacity for domestic use and export.

Last but not the least, there is the need to review the existing national gas policy with a view to making gas more available for domestic use. A critical view at the daily performance of the GENCOs show that most thermal stations are not able to operate most of their healthy machines due to gas constraint. This calls for an investigation as to the cause and solutions proffered.

While wishing the new SA, energy well, it is time to roll up the sleeves and get to serious work with the aim of improving the power sector by repositioning it for the rapid industrialization of our economy.