02 April 2014, Abuja - Power supply across the federation worsened in the month of March, a survey released on Tuesday by NOIPolls, a notable indigenous survey organisation, revealed.
This is coming as private investors in the country’s power assets attributed their poor performance during the period to gas supply constraints as a result of incessant pipeline vandalism.
The poll results revealed that power supply nationwide worsened in March and that majority of Nigerians (54 per cent) claimed that the situation had worsened during the period.
Another 17 per cent said they saw no difference at all, bringing the figure to a total of 71 per cent.
NOIPolls stated, “This month (March) shows an all-time low rating of power; 29 per cent for those who experienced an improvement over the 15-month period that NOIPolls has tracked improvements in household power supply nationwide.
“These are some of the key findings from the Governance Snap Poll conducted in the week of March 24, 2014.”
It noted that the survey was conducted to gauge the opinion and perception of Nigerians regarding the approval rating and performance of President Goodluck Jonathan on key elements of his Transformation Agenda and the state of power supply in the country.
The organisation stated, “Further findings across the geo-political zones indicate that the highest proportion of respondents that reported bad/worsened power supply was from the South West region, with 66 per cent of the respondents, followed by the South-South region, with 59 per cent; and the North East region, with 58 per cent.
“The highest proportion that reported no difference at all was from the North Central, 29 per cent; and those who saw slight improvements were from the North West, 28 per cent; and South East, 30 per cent.”
When contacted to comment on why power supply had worsened despite the fact that the sector had been privatised, the managing director/chief executive officer of one of the generation companies, who asked not to be named, told our correspondent that the situation was beyond the privatisation of the sector.
He said, “Poor power supply is largely due to pipeline vandalism. As far as our gas pipelines are being vandalised by miscreants, the problem may continue.
“We are all in Nigeria and I think this issue is something outside privatisation. It is not today that it started and it has been felt by the Nigerian Gas Company and some other companies as well.
“The day the government gets the solution to oil theft, I think there will be a solution to gas pipeline vandalism. However, there is no cause for alarm because they are working hard to address this issue.”
- The Punch