The Federal Government is considering supplying electricity to the Republic of Chad following a recent request by the neighbouring country.
The government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria disclosed on Sunday that a meeting was held last week to discuss the possibilities of connecting Chad to the national grid.
Nigeria, whose available power generation has been hovering between 3,000 megawatts and 4,500MW in recent years, currently exports electricity to three neighbouring countries, namely Republics of Niger, Benin and Togo.
Total power generation in the country fell to 3,474.5MW as of 6am on Sunday from 3,776.5MW on Saturday, according to data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator.
The number of plants on the national grid that did not produce any megawatts of electricity rose to 11 as of 6am on Sunday from eight on Saturday.
The idle plants were Geregu II, Sapele II, Alaoji, Olorunsogo II, Omotosho II, Ihovbor, Gbarain, Ibom Power, AES, ASCO and Trans-Amadi.
Twenty-seven plants are currently connected to the national grid, which is being managed by the TCN.
“Meeting between Ministry of Power, TCN, and the Chadian Minister of Energy, Mrs Ramatou Mahamat Houtouin, to discuss the possibilities of connecting the Republic of Chad to the Nigerian national grid [was held] on Wednesday, October 21, 2020,” the TCN said on its Twitter handle on Sunday, alongside pictures of the meeting.
The TCN had on June 22, 2020 announced that the government of Chad Republic had formally requested the Nigerian government to connect them to the Nigerian electricity grid in order to ease the burden of power supply in the country.
It disclosed that the Chadian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Abakar Chachaimi, made the request when he led a delegation on a working visit to the Nigerian Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, recently in Abuja.
The tweet by TCN was greeted with widespread criticism by followers of the transmission company.
They wondered why Nigeria would contemplate connecting another country on its grid when the country was suffering from epileptic power supply.
Steven Olasite said, “There is no ‘possibilities’ anything. As I type, we don’t have power for four days before it was restored yesterday. How can a country with epileptic power be contemplating connecting another country to its grid? This is madness!”
Johnson Weniaru, another tweeted follower of TCN, said, “We have not had power for six days now and you want to connect another country to the small one we are managing. You people should borrow yourself sense o.”
Udeh Martin replied TCN’s tweet thus, “How can a country with epileptic power be contemplating connecting another country to its grid? This is total madness!”
Mustapha Adam, who tweeted in pidgin English, said, “You see your problem ko? With the current less than 5,000MW generation? May God deliver us from over sabi people.”
Hilary Onyekwelu advised TCN to stop tweeting such information, as he said, “Don’t tweet this because it is a bad idea. You don’t give what you don’t have.”