6,000 MEGAWATT

The Federal Government of Nigeria promised the citizens uninterrupted power supply by December 2009. This promise has been given before but was unfulfilled by former administration so this latest promise was taken with a pinch of salt and we seem to have taken the right decision. We have few days to the end of 2009 and there is nothing to show seriousness on the part of government.
Recently, the Senate Committee on Power on Tuesday December 8, demanded to know from the ministry of Power if the December 31, 2009 target for the generation of 6000 Megawatt of electricity in Nigeria was realisable and the Minister said Yes. The Minister, Mr. Lanre Babalola was emphatic on their target even when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Nicholas Ugbane expressed disappointment on the non availability of road map for the realisation.
While the Senate Committee Chairman was being 'confused' and the Minister was defending the huge budget spent with nothing to show to the people of Nigeria on power, Power Holding Company placed an advertisement in the dailies that they are now targeting 4,000 Megawatt instead of 6,000Megawatt earlier promised.
Why i said the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power was confused was because he that had oversight function over the Ministry of Power does not know what was generated and distributed to the consumers. 'I don't know where we are today...we have spent billions of naira on the power sector, what is happening?' This quote is the word of the Chairman and i wonder if the man that is supposed to supervise does not know, then what happens to the masses? The Minister responded to the Chairman's worries by assuring that the 6,000MW target is still on course and has not been jettisoned. The Minister said there are more issues to power than generation (as if we don't know). His explanation was that sustainability was mopre important. According to him, 'we are not only targeting 6,000MW but we are looking at sustainability. Without a doubt a lot of money has gone into the sector but the issue at hand is to deal with the whole gamut of generation and distribution.To build a transmission station will take a better part of three years without having major issues and the lines will take about two years. We need to build capacity beyond 6,000MW. We agree that billions of naira have been spent on the power sector. We have not jettisoned the 6,000MW, it is still in focus all things being equal...' All things being equal means that target is subject to other factors which is out of their control and that is gas which is being supplied by the petroleum sector. He assured the Senate Committee that discussions were ongoing with that sector to ensure availabilty of gas to power some of the generating stations.
Recently we read in the dailies that the total power generated by the power stations stood at 2,960MW against the target of 6,000MW. There is a serious shortfall in gas supply to the power stations from the Nigerian Gas Company.
With this revelation, is the 6,000MW target set by the Federal Government realisable? Time will tell because we have few days to 31st December , 2009.