Dear Friends of Africa:
Let me first say thanks for all the great works that you have been doing for your brothers and sisters in Africa. Each of you in our own way has changed lots of lives in a very positive way be it debt relieve, AIDS programs, drought relieve, educational programs to peace programs.
Let me introduce ourselves, we are Nigerians for Super Energy. We are a grassroots campaign aimed at supporting the need for energy in Nigeria and the sub region. 35% of all black people in the world need energy to improve their daily lives. One of our goals is a Nigeria with 50,0000 Megawatts in a well planned grid system. Nigeria today on a good day is producing only 3,000+ megawatts. In January this year the power fell to 1,320 megawatts in a country of 140 million people. If you compare that with New York city with a population of 8 million people which consumed 13,400 megawatts last summer, you know the situation is bad. Senator Emodi of the Senate Committee on Power observed with sadness that the lack of electricity supply in the country had led to “loss of lives in hospitals and clinics without alternative sources of power, loss of means of livelihood by workers whose businesses are solely dependent on constant electricity supply and high cost of production by industries relying on alternative sources of power.’’
The new government has promised to propose to declare a “state of Energy emergency” in that faith, we have proposed the following solution to the government and people of Nigeria.
1.The plan would call for part of excess revenue funds to be invested in power generation and transmission.
2. All sates, Abuja and Local governments must contribute a percentage of their net worth to the projects. Land for projects will be provided by state and local governments.
3. All banks must invest a percentage of their net worth. Corporations and individual investors will be encouraged to invest in the projects with a strong push for public stock participation.
4. All companies must provide free electricity and cooking gas to local communities.
5. Alternate sources must be encouraged, At least one coal power station in Enugu with similar capacity of Tutuka, South Africa 6x609 MW. This should be part of the sale of 13 mining titles belonging to the Nigerian Mining Corporation.
6. Gas and oil pipeline should have backup points. We must be able to ship gas or oil to Lagos; after all we ship it to the ends of the world. Our pipe line should be like a Hydra (multi-head monster) that will allow for maintenance without totally shorting down the country.
7. Implement widespread adoption of CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) and other energy saving programs. CFLs save about four times more energy compare to regular lights.
8. Last but not least, industries using gas for energy will be given gas for free or token price.
A big part of this recommendation is the total involvement of all the stakeholders. The beauty of this approach is strength in number of owners. Truly when you look at the example of 50,000MW it looks large if only the federal government is going to lead, own and support this effort. But when you divide 50,000MW by 25 (number of Banks) you get 2,000MW and when you divide 50,000MW by 37 (number of States), you get 1,375MW. When you divide it by 774 (number of Local governments), you get 64.6MW and finally when you divide by 120,000 (number of shareholder in a a large Nigerian firm) you get 0.42MW. In short those are the numbers we can be looking at when it comes to investing in this effort. In other words each bank on the average can look to participate in financing a 2,000MW project ( whole or part investment).
What we need is your help in replicating what you did with the AIDS agreements model where you were able to have “Agreements with Nine Companies Will Lower Prices of HIV Diagnosis and Two HIV/AIDS Medicines by 30-50 Percent for 50 Countries” This program has been excellent at saving precious lives. We believe that electricity will have the same effect at saving lives by providing things like good drinking water and hospitals with electricity. Our Friends, unlike AIDS where there were several companies to negotiate with in the electrical sector we are looking at at two main companies that can have tremendous effect in accomplishing our goal. The companies are General Electric and Siemens. The main form of help could come in form of providing turbines to the power stations in our 50,000 megawatts goal. The funding of the turbines will be the Federal, State and Local governments contribution to the plan. By pulling these purchases together and guaranteeing the companies high sales and payment, the people of Nigeria will get even more saving to met our goal. We are glad that the General Electric President of Middle East and Africa Mr. Nabil Habayeb has already visited the President of Nigeria on September 3, 2007 to discuss electrical and other infrastructure challenges in Nigeria. We hope the President of Siemens will follow soon. Lastly we hope this plan will include location of some manufacturing capacities in Nigeria to serve the rest of Africa.
Our Friends, we believe that given Nigeria's strategic role in Africa any improve in Nigeria will greatly affect the African continent. The new government in Nigeria is interested in making the lives of the Nigerians better. We believe that this agreement will help save lives and provide 140 million people a way employ themselves with no need for handouts.
God Bless,
Joseph Inyang
President - Nigerians for Super Energy
