Dr Moses Arigu, the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has charged students to dream big and be focused on their quest to achieving greatness.
He gave the charge on Tuesday in Abuja at an event organised by the commission to recognise and award some students who excelled in its annual Electricity Essay Challenge for Secondary Schools.
The students selected from secondary schools within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were asked to write on “Efficiency of Electricity in Nigeria’’.
According to Arigu, the competition is created to help students and the younger generation to appreciate the challenges in electricity generation and distribution as well as to guide their choices.
He said that it was also to catch the students young and make them likely producers of better and efficient energy in the future.
Arigu advised that the students should go aspire to become doctors and electrical engineers in future, not just electricity consumers.
Egbeji Paul, a 15-year-old student of Government Secondary School Yebu, in a satellite town in the FCT came first in the competition with a cash prize of #300,000.
Paul, while thanking NERC for organising the competition, said he never thought he would be a beneficiary of such opportunity.
James Jephthah of Lead British International School, Gwarinpa emerged second, while the third prize went to Priscilla Sunday of Government Secondary School Gawu, also in the FCT.
Jephthah got a cash prize of #200,000, Sunday got a cash prize of #150,000.
A #50,000 cash award was also given to each of the English teachers of the three winning schools, while an undisclosed sum was also paid into the accounts of the parents of the winning students.
Mr Peter David, an English teacher from Government Secondary School, Gawu who spoke on behalf of other teachers, advised students to continue to do their best in their studies and to remain focused.
He also thanked NERC for giving the students the opportunity to express themselves and to excel.
NERC was instituted primarily to regulate the tariff of power generating companies owned or controlled by the government, and any other generating company which has a license for power generation and transmission of energy, and distribution of electricity.
It was established in 2005 under the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration’s economic reform agenda through the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005.
The commission was established among other things, to review electricity tariffs, and ensure transparent policies regarding subsidies, promotion of policies that are efficient and environmentally friendly,
It is also to enforce standards in the creation and use of electricity in the country.
