A LEGAL APPRAISAL OF THE ELECTRICITY POWER SECTOR REFORMS IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT Nigeria’s electric power sector requires substantial reform if the country’s economic development and poverty alleviation programme is to be realized. Currently, the country faces serious energy crisis due to declining electricity generation from domestic power plants which are basically dilapidated, obsolete, and in an appalling state of disrepair, reflecting the poor maintenance culture in the country and gross inefficiency of the public utility provider. The government encouraged the private sectors to invest into the electricity industry so that, the monopoly created by the NEPA could be demolished and at the same time, some independent power producers could enter into the electricity sector. This understanding is behind the introduction of the Power Sector Reform Act 2005 which was recently initiated by the Nigerian government with the goal of privatizing the National Electric Power monopoly, NEPA. Age long principles of democratic governance, of sovereignty belonging to the people, the people’s entitlement to participate in their governance and most importantly from the point of view of the topic of this paper, that security and the welfare of the people are the principal aim of government, form the theme of the provisions of section 13 of the 1999 Constitution.