The dream of having stable electricity supply in this dispensation is working; this is due to the visionary and exemplary leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has provided the enabling environment and the wherewithal for his able lieutenants in the Transmission Company of Nigeria to deliver the goods and effectively pioneer the reality to have steady electricity in Nigeria; this report is about the rapid developments and machinery replacements taking place across the country in TCN formations.
Stories by Clement Ebaku, Lucy Adah, Prince Ebri, and Ibrahim Isah, from Benin, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Enugu
Nigerians want to experience a steady power supply and reap the benefits. They want results, not television announcements or newspaper advertisements proclaiming some “groundbreaking” event, and after that, silence! The world is moving towards unprecedented technological advancements, and Nigeria cannot lag, especially now that Gen-Z is up to it. But they need transparency and commitment to do that; they know that governance is not rocket science and a determined management can deliver the impossible; they want assurances, not political manipulation and jargon; they know that the ability to attain the heights of regular electricity is not a pipe dream; if the government wants to do it, they will! There is no limit the average Nigerian cannot achieve when presented with the enabling environment to perform, but now in the 21st century, the government is up and awake.
President Tinubu has set the ball rolling, and as discovered in the course of these two weeks’ exercise, officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria have connected with his vision and are running with it—dispassionately! Nowhere in the seven regions visited that real work not manifest. And as with every engineering and technical concern, extreme care must be taken to confront the issues; there is absolutely nothing in the Transmission sector that is produced overnight. Now, and perhaps we need to add “luckily”, there is somebody taking responsibility and pushing harder than expected! And moving with this speed, Nigerians would have their desire in less than two years! And there is no better way to know than by reading what our reporters found out in the course of the visitation. Let it be known that the Transmission Company of Nigeria has about 8,937.39 KM of 330KM lines to cover nationwide and 79.08.37 km of 132KV transmission Lines to supervise.
This equipment’s have been there for decades and now the TCN management are doing a lot, wait a minute, let’s deploy ‘technical languages” of what is called “energizing”, “upgrading”, “reinforcements” “Installations”, and “deliveries” nationwide. Disturbances in the National Grid occurs because of probably weak equipment’s or obsolete ones; and so to get that out of the way, they have to be “upgraded’, “energized” or “replaced” outright! And there is more to this: nowhere in the country is left apart! For example, in Gombe, Ayede, the 1x60MVA, 132/33Kv sub-station has been reinforced with brand new “Switch gears and Line Bay extensions! The same was noticed in Bauchi, Kaduna, Enugu, Kano, Shiroro, Port Harcourt, and Shogbo regions, where massive upgrading and overhaul are taking place. The upgrading and reinforcements enhance voltage regulation and provide reactive power compensation, enhancing grid visibility!
Like buying brand new engines to replace ageing ones in your car! In the year 2025 alone, the TCN management has energized 22 sub-stations and commissioned 43 sub-stations, not to mention the installed transformers and completed transmission lines! To raise readers’ consciousness, let it be known, for example, that the Kaduna Region covers Zamfara, Kebbi states, and parts of Niamey in the Niger Republic; The Benin region covers parts of Edo, Delta, Ekiti, and Osun States, which makes traversing the terrains difficult. The Enugu Region covers parts of Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Benue, Kogi, and Cross River State.
There is now a substantial power supply to the North East and West Regions as a result of these monumental developments. The march towards system stability and reliability demands that all hands must be on deck. This is not the terrain for neophytes; this is the playground for professionals who know their onions. It takes time to replace faulty “isolators”, “insulators”, “circuit towers”, “Feeders,” and all that. For example, the Kaduna-Jos transmission line route have been equipped with new “multy circuit towers which now increased their capacity from 500MW to 1,500MV. Thus, increasing the “wheeling capacity” and “voltage profile” nationwide, and at the rate these energizing is taking place, Nigeria’s capacity to generate 20,000 Megawatts may be here! This is the power of the “mindset” If Nigerians can visualize it, they will get it!
I watched a Reality Television show titled “Beyond the Limits”, in which a gentleman performed an extremely dangerous task by climbing a 3,000-foot mountain with his bare hands, unaided by any equipment! At some point, even those watching him perform the daring exercise turned their eyes away for fear of seeing the unimaginable, but the gentleman braved the dizzying heights and breached the mountain top. When questioned, he replied, “The mind, that nothing the mind sets out to do that it cannot accomplish.” That was a big lesson. The gentleman went on to walk across two huge mountains linked together by a single tough rope! Well, that is a story for another day. The lesson here is this: that particular mindset is evident in the drivers of the current leadership.
This fact cannot be undermined, because the general feeling in the past would have been to look in the direction of self-aggrandizement and possibly corrupt practices. But Nigeria has suffered enough and deserves at least regularity in power supply; this is the least they demand from the government. And now, if this government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is radicalizing the sector, he must be encouraged to push on. With a regular power supply, this generation of Nigerians would witness rapid technological advancements in every area, not only in the financial sector. There is more to be learned and gained from the ongoing enhancement.
Abuja, the seat of the Federal Capital, is on the verge of capacity optimum, with most of the Transmission lines completed and giant transformers installed. In the Lokogoma, Kubwa, and Mararaba axis where “load shedding” occurs, by the time the new Sub-stations in Lugbe and Wumba get into action, the rhetoric of “Band A” or “Band B” would be significantly a nullity. Nevertheless, in Part 4 serial, you will be hearing about the crucial part played by “Multilateral Agencies”, what is called “Donor countries”. Nigerians like to be informed better to grasp the real picture. Many of them hear of Donor Countries, but now they will be told about who they are: the JICA, AFDB, AFD, the World Bank, and the projects they are helping to fund! It is all in the mind, as explained before!
