OPINION: The Audacity And Constitutional Imperative Of HAB12 – Hon. Philip Okey Igwe 

After my election to the Abia State House of Assembly in 2019, I sat down and thought deeply about the nature of bills I should sponsor for the benefit of my constituency and indeed Abia State at large. I adopted as my polar guide, the idea that any impactful bill should never be a solution in search of a problem. Rather, a well thought out bill should be narrow-tailored to solving an existing, urgent need – one that is of general, if universal benefit to the immediate constituency of applicability.

I have consistently maintained that electricity is the bedrock of economic development. It is the basic touchstone by which all industrialized nations have attained their status. Nigeria as the largest market in Africa is an economic rocket waiting to take off and stalled only by our failure, over time, to industrialize. At the heart of that failure is insufficient generation of enough electricity to power the innovative genius of the most entrepreneurial humans on the face of our planet.

It was a no brainer, therefore, that I should introduce a bill seeking to liberalize power generation and foster energy independence for Abia State. That bill was HAB-12. I was on radio talking about it, did seminars to educate both colleagues and stakeholders. Folks were unable to fully grasp the extent and impact the bill was designed to achieve. I wrote the essay below, at the time, just to provide clarity. All said, HAB-12 was finally passed into law towards the end of the 7th House. It is a law today waiting for a visionary governor to assent and unlock its potentials.

Few days ago, President Tinubu assented to an electricity bill seeking to repeal the electricity and power sector Act of 2005. That bill is now the electricity Act. It essentially, de-monopolizes generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity at the National level. It empowers states, companies and individuals to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity intrastate and within the outer limits allowed by the constitution. This exactly is what HAB-12 was designed and passed into law to achieve for Abia State. It is a game changer. I hereby call on Governor Otti to assent to this bill and unleash innovation in the energy space in Abia. This will ultimately jumpstart our Industrial Revolution.

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THE AUDACITY AND CONSTITUIONAL IMPERATIVE OF HAB12

HAB12 is a bill undergoing legislative passage into law in the 7th Abia House of Assembly. Sponsored by the member representing Umunneochi State Constituency and others, the bill whose long title is A Bill for a Law to Establish Electric Power Authority and Power Stations in Abia State and for Other Matters Connected Therewith is a revolutionary bill that will unbundle power generation and distribution in the state if and when passed into law and assented to by the Executive Governor of Abia State.

The Bills object clause indicates thats its intent is to: (a) ensure that areas within the state not covered by a National Grid system would have access to electricity to improve the lives of citizens in the hinterland; (b) act as an economic stimulus by enhancing industrialization and development of small and medium scale enterprises in the hinterland; and (c) increase job opportunities for the gainful employment of some citizens.

I have consistently maintained that Nigeria is an economic rocket waiting to take off. The only thing holding it is infrastructural insufficiency (and in most case non-availability) and chief among these key infrastructures is electric power.  We are bugged down by an archaic National Grid system that is at best inefficient. To understand our National Grid scheme, think of electricity as water and imagine a national water grid that requires that all water generated from all sources must first be sent to a national grid someplace in the North before distribution to all parts of the country. Common sense dictates that such a scheme will astronomically drive up the price of water and immediately minimize availability. To be sure, any effort at solving the grid logjam must get at the heart of the problem and systemically unbundle and or liberalize the current policy. A precedential understanding is easily provided by our recent telecoms liberalization policy that unbundled NITEL to pave the way for what was and still remains the Telecoms boom of the 21st century in Nigeria. It used to be that if one needed to make a call from Umunneochi, one would make a one-hour trip to the nearby city of Enugu where there was the nearest NITEL office. Today, there are cell phones in the remotest of villages all over this country.

How shall we replicate the telecoms feat in the electric power sector? Electric power boom must necessarily get triggered by legislative enablement. As a general matter, most citizens assume that electric power generation is under the exclusive legislative list of the 1999 constitution so as to permissively prohibit state action or intervention in the sector. To the contrary, power generation is under the concurrent legislative list and clearly delineates that both the NASS and State Houses of Assembly may make laws in connection therewith. The concurrent legislative list in the Second Schedule, Part II Item 14 provides thus: A House of Assembly may make laws for the State with respect to: (a) electricity and the establishment in that state of electric power stations; (b) the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to areas not covered by a national grid system within that state; and (c) the establishment within that state of any authority for the promotion and management of electric power stations established by the state. All the quoted provisions of the concurrent list, taken together, indicate that any state of the Nation is fully within its powers to make laws with regards to electricity generation, transmission, and distribution within the state. A broad reading of the provisions  within its outer limits  empowers a state to make laws that enable investors to set up powers stations anywhere in the state and distribute the electric power within that state. The only limit here is that the distribution shall not exceed interstate lines. On the other hand, a narrow reading of the same provision (Item 14) limits the making of laws for setting up of power stations and generation/transmission/distribution of electricity within a state only to areas not covered by our very archaic national grid. Both readings rest on all fours constitutionally speaking.

Yet, HAB12 has cautiously taken the narrow approach to avoid unnecessary constitutional rancour with entrenched interests. Cynics have suggested HAB12 would face the same kinds of challenge that Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and its promoters mounted against Geometrics Energy in its attempt to energize Aba and its suburbs. For purposes of legal clarity, the EEDC/Geometrics dispute was a federal contractual matter  it is far from clear that any of the parties was in the wrong, but we know the federal government dropped the ball by issuing two conflicting licenses. By contrast, HAB12 touches only constitutional issues  any challenge to it will be an impermissible intrusion on state rights. I must crave intervention of the Executive Governor to use the full imprimatur of his office to shield HAB12 when it becomes law as the prospective commercial/economic benefits are enormous. The Governor has done magnificently great in terms of making what I consider foundational, if generational policy interventions  not just economic policy sugar highs  especially in Agriculture a la farming clusters in strategic locations, and watershed infrastructural projects a la Enyimba Economic City which is capable of generating almost a million jobs etc. Unleashing efficient power generation in Abia State will streamline, galvanize, and bring all of the Governors interventions home.

HAB12 will unleash electric power boom in Abia State that is capable of igniting an industrial revolution the likes of which this country has never seen before. Unlike the national grid system, HAB12 will free investors to compete and by so doing foster efficiency while lowering price for consumers. Our teeming youths will find gainful employment and social vices will greatly diminish. Finally, let me end this way. The difference between the western hemisphere and Sub-Saharan Africa is simply a deficit of infrastructure especially electric power for the simple reason that electricity is necessary for just about every 21st century human activity. Let us replicate the telecoms boom in power and win for Abia.

Hon. Phillip Okey Igwe, Esq.

Member Abia State House of Assembly