The relevance and usefulness of any piece of research is determined to a large extent by its ability to address fundamental problems of society (Nigeria inclusive). Thus the Nigerian electricity dilemma during the post-colonial era has been a major constrain to socio-economic and political development and sustainability.
Thus, abject lack of electricity supply has largely institutionalized the culture of absolute poverty, deprivation, want, unemployment, high cost of generating sets, crippling of infant industries, down-turn of medium and small scale enterprises, corruption, ineptitude, inequality, lack of transparency and accountability, lack of responsiveness, money laundering, total blackout, high maternal and infant mortality, lack of economic growth, development and sustainability, sudden change from public sector to private-sector driven economy with its attendant consequences, to mention but a few.
The fundamental questions to ask for the purpose of seeking answers or solutions to the problem under review are: why has Nigeria not been able to solve her problems of persistent power outage while she is busy brandishing her big-brother status before other African countries like Niger, Togo and Benin? What positive impact can privatization of the power sector bring to the Nigerian economy? Why is there lack of participation of Nigerian citizens in the privatization exercise? Why has the privatization of the power sector being skewed towards the interest of few wealthy Nigerians to the detriment of majority of the Nigerian masses.
What could be the environmental effect of nuclear energy option adopted by Mr President and why? Why has there been massive cases of vandalization, illegal connection, theft of PHCN power installations, corruption and the like? Why is it that there is absolute lack of faith and hope on the current investigation on the power sector by Nigerians? what is responsible for lack of public participation, among others. These are major problems demanding solutions as far as this study is concerned. It is in the interest of the aforementioned that the research is focused, hence, geared towards the possibilities of enhancing power supply to all Nigerians in the 21st century and beyond.
Some questions to be asked in the power sector of Nigeria include
2. What is the extent of civil society participation in the privatization of Nigeria’s power sector?
3. What are the global implications of privatization of Nigeria’s power sector?
4. Has the efficiency of Nigeria’s power sector any link with privatization and divestiture of the sector?
5. Is the lack of competition and enabling environment in Nigeria responsible for the poor state of power supply?
6. Privatization of Nigeria’s power does not imply express national development in Nigeria.