Issues and Challenges of Power Sector Reforms in Nigeria: The Political Economy Approach

Abstract

The post-colonial status and the formation of the Nigerian state have no doubt, redefined it as a neo-patrimonial, pseudo-capitalist and dependent entity. Its forceful integration into the global capitalist ideological orbit could be predicated on the historical antecedents of its colonial heritage. The rentier nature of its political economy had further broadened the basis of capital accumulation through the enlistment of the Nigerian political class interest. The Nigerian economic crises that persist in varying degrees have equally precipitated a number of reform policies by the successive governments in finding the alternative to the economic crises. One of such is the power sector reform with the critical infrastructural gaps despite the continued interventions over the years. There are quite emerging robust literature to support the engaging debates on the nature and character of the Nigerian pervasive economic crises. This paper, interrogates and historicizes the power sector reform policy and undertakes a careful examination of the implications of the privatization exercise as purportedly implemented under the current reforms and its far-reaching effects amidst the exacerbating social crisis of pervasive poverty and the near-absence of effective regulatory mechanism to curtail the exploitative tendencies against the Nigerian mass of electricity consumers. It is also in the contention of this paper that, the post-privatization era in the power sector is still riddled with a plethora of challenges as mostly crystallized by the poor service delivery and the exploitation of electricity consumers.