Politically speaking, the privatization of public entities is meant to inject efficiency into such sector for improved and better performance because it has been globally agreed that government is a bad manager of resources and has no business in business but should only provide enabling environment for private enterprises with competence and relevant skills to thrive.

In line with the above objective of privatization, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is considering unbundling the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) because the power sector is yet to deliver on its mandate to make stable and reliable electricity available to Nigerians.

Left to some analysts, TCN is better managed as a single entity that should be fortified with additional investment into making available basic infrastructure like a functional Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), upgrading and rehabilitation of existing equipment and substations etc for it to perform better. 

Lofty as the unbundling plan is, the government should carry out an evaluation of the already privatized outfits before taking a final decision in this regard.

Since the privatization of the generation and distribution arms of the value chain in the power sector in 2013, the output has been a mixed bag of fortunes with some doing well while others have become retrogressive in their performance. This is why government must not rush but do due diligence of the privatized outfits so as to be properly guided on its decision.

Also, the government should be careful with regards to the privatization model to be selected for TCN. This is necessary because the failure of some of the existing privatized outfits is traceable to the model adopted and the type of persons entrusted with the privatized companies. Excessive political consideration was used in picking those declared as preferred bidders at the detriment of competence and capability. A cursory view of the performance of these outfits will show that those doing well are being controlled by knowledgeable people with industry-wide experience.

Furthermore, as a critical national asset, serious consideration must be given to the security implication of unbundling TCN so as not to inadvertently expose the security of the nation to anonymous entities.

With an effective monitoring mechanism in place to periodically evaluate their performances, privatization could attract good dividends to the sector and free up the sector to receive injectable funds for necessary investments that are aimed at upgrading facilities and improving the overall performance of the sector.

Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the day when available installed generation capacity together with transmission wheeling capacity and disco network will be able and capable to give them 24 hours uninterrupted power supply.