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Black Weekend: Nigeria’s electricity grid collapses again! It’s third time in month

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According to Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, the West African country’s national electricity grid has for the third time in less than a month collapsed, leaving major Nigerian cities in blackouts this weekend.

The news of the collapse was made known in a statement signed by Isa Sanusi, SA (Media) for the Honourable Minister of the Ministry of Power. The statement said a system collapse occurred at 18:30 hours on Friday, April 8.

The development is in contrast to the assurance given to the Nigerian public after the last collapse in March, when the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which manages the grid said it had developed alternative ways of managing the grid.

The Ministry in another statement blamed the grid collapse on an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330KV double circuit transmission, therefore, resulting in a sudden loss of about 400MW of generation.”

It added that other on-grid power plants are being dispatched to cover the lost generation capacity from the Calabar power plant owned by Niger Power Holding Company Ltd.

Nigeria’s energy crisis persists despite lots of investment in the sector and international collaborations to get one of Africa’s biggest economies out of the darkness. In 2019, Nigeria’s Federal Government entered a partnership deal with Germany-based firm, Siemens under the Presidential Power Initiative to increase Nigeria’s electricity from the current 4,500 megawatts (MW) to 25,000 MW but not much has been achieved to better Nigeria’s electricity lots.

Currently, only 45% of Nigeria’s population is connected to the energy grid whilst power supply difficulties are experienced around 85% of the time and are almost nonexistent in certain regions. At best, the average daily power supply is estimated at four hours, although several days can go by without any power at all.

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Zambian govt snubs transparency calls, says no law compels President Hichilema to declare assets annually

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The Chief spokesman for the Zambian government, Cornelius Mweetwa, has countered calls for President Hakainde Hichilema to declare his assets every year, saying there is no law in the country that compels the president to do so.

The calls had come from the US Ambassador to Zambia, Michael Gonzales, who urged Hichilema and Vice President Mutale Nalumango to consider declaring their assets annually until their term in office expired so ass to set an example for all other public servants to emulate.

However, Mweetwa, at a press conference in Lusaka on Tuesday, said Zambia had no law compelling a sitting Head of State to declare his or her assets annually.

Mweetwa said the only law which required a declaration of assets was the Electoral Commission of Zambia during the filing of nominations, though there was no requirement for publication of same.

While addressing the gathering, the government spokesman alleged that the previous government of the Patriotic Front (PF) had removed the clause from the Constitution following a debate on the accumulation of wealth by former President Edgar Lungu university within a year of his presidency.

“You will all recall that the previous government eliminated Article 30 which provided previously that such declaration should be made public,” Mweetwa stated.

Mweetwa also alleged that the PF left the country with a “Constitution full of either lacunas or provisions that are plugging and negating good governance.”

“Talks to amend the Constitution were orchestrated by our colleagues in the opposition and they wanted to u-turn over the same,” he said, but however, expressing shock over the alleged u-turn by the opposition.

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Nigeria set to begin passport automation 

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Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has announced that the automation of the country’s passport application is in its final stages.

In an interview, the minister stated that the automated application was 99% complete and would go live in a week, adding that Nigerians would only need to visit immigration centres to complete their fingerprint biometrics for passports after that point.

Ojo went on to say that Nigerians can upload their passport photos and other supporting documents using the new system from the comfort of their homes.

The minister said: “We gave a date — December 2023. We are 99 per cent done. In fact, we have done the testing and we should be going live in the next week or thereabouts.

“This will ensure that what Nigerians need to do at an immigration centre is just fingerprint biometrics.

“Everything regarding pre-biometrics will be done in the comfort of your homes, including uploading passport photographs and supporting documents.

“They went live about two weeks ago but I saw some errors when they came to do the presentation and I said no. We were talking about balancing national security and convenience.”

Nigeria’s passport system has been characterised by racketeering, logistics failure, and poor due diligence which have frustrated many, home and abroad, in their quest to own their entitlement as Nigerian citizens.

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