A FORMER trade union leader in Nigeria (now a politician) once said Nigeria would never realise its potential of becoming a world-class economy if it had to rely on candles and generators to get there. The hum of generators is as much a feature of life in Nigeria as powdered yam, Fela Kuti and pepper soup. The brief interregnum between state power and generators springing into action, and back again, occurs throughout every day.

Successive administrations have spent billions of dollars, supposedly on fixing the power problem, but the money has disappeared in corrupt schemes. If anything, power supply has gone backwards. Nigeria relies on a mere 4000MW to serve 160-million people — a 10th of SA’s supply. But this looks set to change as the government of Goodluck Jonathan seems to be making good on its promise to privatise its power utilities in an attempt to get the lights on. Last week, the government announced the preferred bidders for 11 power distribution firms and it recently approved bids for five power plants.

Inevitably, in Nigeria, there is talk of corruption in the process. The successful bidders are the usual suspects in the country’s political and business elite, who have little experience in the power sector.

But most have partnered with international companies from China, Russia, the US, Israel and others.

Before the bidders were announced, Power Minister Bert Nnaji stepped down after it was revealed he had an interest in one of the bidding consortiums. In Nigeria, the line between politics and business is rather grey and it is unusual for a public servant to step down over a conflict of interest. Nnaji said he was pushed out by vested interests, believed to refer to those affected by his attempts to rid the sector of corruption.

One of the chosen bidders is a company chaired by former military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was mentioned in a 2008 government probe into the expenditure of $16bn on the power sector over an eight-year period with no result. His then company, Enego Nigeria, collected millions of dollars for a transmission line project but did only a fraction of the work.

Another preferred bidder is oil magnate Femi Otedola, who was the subject of corruption allegations relating to the fuel subsidy, which was partially removed in January. Yet another is Transnational Corporation, set up by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to invest in choice projects. It has many business heavyweights as shareholders, including former UBA boss Tony Elumelu.

The chair of the power reform team’s technical committee, respected businessman and Stanbic IBTC chairman Atedo Peterside, stands by the process, saying it was fair and transparent. However, there are concerns about whether all the bidders will be able to meet the six-month payment terms. Nigeria’s privatisation process has been dogged by issues of companies not being able to raise funding to meet payment deadlines. Several of the bidders were among more than 100 companies that the central bank recently prevented from taking loans because of their failure to pay previous debts.

Notwithstanding some of the niggling issues around the process, the fact that it has got this far is a big step forward for a nation that has seen and heard it all before. The president seems to be serious about meeting his ambitious power targets.

This could be a game-changer for Nigeria’s economy if it is successfully executed. As Nigerians often point out, look how far they have come with almost no power. Imagine what they could do when they have it.

• Games is CEO of Africa At Work, an African consulting company.