The Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) has tasked the federal government to fast-track clearing of the legacy gas supply debts in the power sector.

According to the body, the debts are impediments to progress in Africa’s largest economy.

Nigeria’s largely untapped natural gas resources could provide the means for the country to fund its way through the global energy transition.

President of NGA, Mr Ed Ubong, maintained that as soon as the government clears the debt, it can then hold private stakeholders accountable for the promises made to bolster the sector with more gas supply.

Mr Ubong noted that while members of NGA in tandem with the government are seeking innovative solutions for the sector, end-users also need to adopt gas as a viable and clean source of energy during this decade of gas.

He spoke during a panel session on Harnessing Opportunities in the Nigerian Gas Sector at the just concluded Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja.

“As soon as the government removes this obstacle (gas supply debts), then it can hold private stakeholders accountable for the promises that they have made to bolster the sector with more gas supply,” he stated.

The NGA boss commended the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for embracing gas generators to power its headquarter office in Bayelsa and charged all federal agencies, department and ministries to switch over to gas generators for power.

The NGA further tasked the federal government to institutionalize gas-powered generator usage for public parastatals and private entities that use generators of more than 250kva capacity.

Lack of infrastructure has historically hampered the Nigerian energy sector and represents a crucial reason why its gas reserves have been untapped for so long, stakeholders have noted that investments will be crucial in moving the sector towards gas.

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Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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Nigerians may continue to suffer poor electricity distribution if urgent steps are not taken to curtail the twin problems of energy theft and vandalism.

This was the submission of the Executive Director in charge of Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr Sunday Oduntan.

He said during an interaction session with electricity consumers within the network coverage of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Thursday, September 15, 2022, that until these issues are tackled, Distribution Companies (DisCos) will continue to serve their customers poorly.

“The amount of energy that is stolen in this country is so much that it has impacted our ability to deliver service. I told the customers here that in a community, transformers are not put inside the bush or by the corner.

“People need to secure their transformers to enable us to provide the service that they need,” he said at the event themed Building Consumer Awareness and Strengthening the Customer Service Capacity of Electricity Distribution Companies.

As to ways to solve the menace, Mr Oduntan emphasised that it is only through collaboration between communities and DisCos, urging communities to guard their properties against vandals and to report energy theft through by-passing, to DisCos.

“The way forward is more collaboration and cooperation between the service providers and the communities and more communication. Sometimes, there is a disconnect in terms of awareness. We need to let our customers know what we are doing and what we need to do.

“Electricity supply has improved in recent weeks all over the country but we are not there yet; we are not where we need to be,” the energy expert said at the session supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Many energy distribution firms in Nigeria have always lamented the several millions of Naira they lose monthly to the stealing of electricity installations and the bypass of prepaid meters by customers.

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that a new board for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) would be constituted at the end of the implementation of the recommendations of the forensic audit report which is in phases.

He made the pledge to inaugurate the new NDDC board while declaring open the 5th National Council Meeting on Niger Delta held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

He said: “In response to the call of the governors of the South-south geopolitical zone for a forensic audit of NDDC, I undertook some critical reforms and requested a forensic audit of NDDC from inception in 2000 to 2019.

“The report of the audit has bèen submitted and the implementation of its recommendations has commenced in phases.

“I hereby assured you that this process will eventually bring about the constitution of a new board for the commission, which is the desire of most stakeholders in the region.”

The President, who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mr Mohammed Abdullahe, lauded the leaders and youths of the region for their hard work which has brought relative peace and security being experienced in the region.

This, he said, would certainly accelerate the development of the region and provide opportunities to improve basic services, promote economic growth, and enterprise development and attract development into the Niger Delta region.

Mr Buhari said that the theme of the council meeting Harnessing 21st Century Development Initiative and Strategies for Greater Development Impact in the Niger Delta was appropriate as it would stimulate proper coordination of developmental programmes and projects in the region.

He disclosed that the Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SIWP), a framework meant to address the strategic objectives raised in the federal government’s 20-point agenda and the Pan Niger Delta Forum’s (PANDEF), 16-point agenda was already in operation.

He explained that the SIWP tool provided a strategic framework for the coordination of investment into development and stabilisation interventions in the Niger Delta region to ensure maximum efficiency and impact at a critical time.

According to the President, “this is another effort to ensure a paradigm shift from the old ways of projects imprisonment without synergy among various operators in the region.”

Mr Buhari noted that the new leadership in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has prioritised the implementation of the harmonisation of all developmental plans of all agencies and development partners operating in the region into a single integrated regional development plan as a road map to accelerate the development of the region.

He said: “As stakeholders, you must engage your minds as you deliberate in this meeting today on issues of economic diversification, fostering economic growth, eradication of extreme poverty, promotion of social inclusion, creation of jobs, and stemming environmental degradation including climate change in the region.”

On his part, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Umana Okon Umana, stressed that the meeting was a very important item on the calendar of events in the ministry as it also offers the NDDC and stakeholders the opportunity to take stock of collective engagement with the mandate of reinventing the Niger Delta region.

In order to achieve its mandate, Umana said the ministry has actively partnered and collaborated with other relevant agencies, development partners, international oil companies (IOCs), and other stakeholders on infrastructure development, investment in social services, and institutional capacity building for the Niger Delta region.

He said the federal government is committed not just to completing the East-West Road but also to turning the Eleme section of the road into a super expressway to underscore its strategic value derived from the quantum of investments across Eleme-Onne axis of the road in Rivers State.

Nigerians have been urged to maintain the highest level of alertness ahead of the 2023 general elections as there are allegedly some persons planning to scuttle the polls.

In a statement on Friday, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) alleged that efforts are being made to ensure that the exercise is not free and fair.

The group stated that some “enemies of democracy” want to use the courts to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a device that has brought sanity into the system as reflected in the off-season elections in Osun and Ekiti States.

“What must be done is that citizens must maintain the highest level of political alertness and ensure that they stand up for credible elections in 2023 in the same manner they stood and saw through the amendment and assent to the 2022 Electoral Act,” the organisation said in a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Mr Willy Ezugwu.

Recently, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) claimed that some politicians were planning to ensure that the BVAS is not used next year for the polls.

The system puts away the use of manual voters’ register for voting.

Reacting to this, CNPP said, “Plots to compromise INEC and the voters’ register, as CUPP alleged, should be taken very seriously by all lovers of democracy in Nigeria, particularly the civil society despite the CNPP’s belief that INEC is on the side of the people on transparent elections next.

“The enemies of free, fair and transparent elections failed to stop the amendment and assent to the 2022 Electoral Act, and they later went to court to annul the contentious Section 84(12) of the Act in a secret suit which culminated into a court order directing the Attorney General of the Federation to delete the said clause in an obvious black market judgment.

“So, after losing the Osun State governorship election due to the deployment of technology and the vigilance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) during the election, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will stop at nothing to compromise the electoral process.

“The CNPP, therefore, warns both INEC and the Nigerian judiciary to take special note that there will be grave consequences for the future and unity of the country if the renewed hope of Nigerian youths in the current electoral process is dashed.

“The aftermath will be unimaginable and could threaten the country’s fragile peace and security and must be averted at all costs.

“Politicians must note that they are only running in the 2023 political race because there is one united country, Nigeria.

“Those in the judiciary must not allow themselves to be used to set Nigeria on fire as the inferno may not spare anyone if the ongoing electoral process is compromised by any means.

“The CNPP, therefore, joins the CUPP to call on international partners, local and international observer groups, civil society and the general public to join the struggle to protect democracy in Nigeria and ensure that the 2023 general elections are not compromised in any way as the corporate existence of the country largely depends on the process that leads to the eventual outcome,” the CNPP stated.