Written by Oladotun Oladele
Nigeria as a nation have been living and are tormented by this highly hydra-headed problem of electricity in Nigeria. There is one salient truth and that is, this problem is very surmountable and it can be overcome. Many would only wonder when as a nation that when will we ever get it right.
It is very possible to get our electricity problems right if we have a system that is actually working. At this junction, we cannot but take a look back into our history or our immediate past. It will do us no good if we have to look way back in time in the days when as a nation we were starting out but tobe sincere, there are no problems that have faced us as a nation that is beyond us.
Be it as it may, there are many people who are happy with the state that we are as a country because they are making tons of money in the ensuing chaos that is bedeviling this great nation. Nigeria is definitely a great nation with a great prospects but it is out sad that many of the people who are managing these very important sectors do not have the right understanding of the problems that the sector is actually facing.
Many times we have heard the theories of power generation and distribution but all we have heard are just what has been said in tbe news and what followed afterwards are other news of collapse of grids and the fall in megawatts generated. To the ordinary Nigerians out there, these are propagandas because they have not actually been enjoying these electricities like they should.
STRUCTURE many times we have heard about the provision of infrastructure but what we really need to look at is, what structure actually are in place? Before the advent of the use of gas, we were using hydro to generate power and charcoal too but one fundamental question would be, "what happened to all the machineries that were using these raw materials for power generation?"
As a nation with a continuous increase in population we must begin to understand and grapple with the facts that we are lacking in structure or we have abandoned the structures that had hitherto worked for us. The reason why we abandoned the hydro and charcoal electricity generation is premised on the facts of what we did when we abandoned agriculture and embraced the sale of crude oil with the hurriedly built refineries which have become white elephant projects.
How could we as a nation get it right when the structure we had earlier used which ought to be improved upon had been neglected because we think those systems don't work. Like the rail system which was killed until it became apparent that we need to revitalise the sector which we could have done more but within the capacity of those who are in power they had done what they deemed is their best but sincerely many Nigerians including these people who executed the contracts don't use these structures long after the commissioning because it is not at par with what obtains in other developed climes where they board such services.
With 36 states, there was no reasons why we could not have divided our electricity distribution systems or structures into about 12 structures for ease of administration because of the land mass of the country instead of using a 6 geo-political zone structure which we all know is more like the old National Electric Power Authority which actually held the nation hostage with crazy bill estimates which even the new electricity board have also adopted the regime to bill the people mostly for electricities they did not consume.
SYSTEM assuming we as a nation got our structuring right, there are high possibilities of getting our systems right. The inordinate desires to milk Nigerians by giving them estimated bills so they can owe these electricity companies had been reasons why there are great scarcity of prepaid meters. One begins to wonder what happened to the manufacturers who supplied the first sets of prepaid meters to the electricity company because the new meters being installed are not same with the first batch of meters.
In our dear nation, the truth is the most expensive commodity and since many desire the elective or government appointment just because of the free cash flow in the system there is no way in which quality will always quantity. The system of electricity distribution is highly faulty and that system is grossly responsible for the continuous lack lustre performance of the sector. To be candid, when people are in position of authority and there is free flow of cash, they wouldn't mind the cost of power including fueling their generators.
It is in this nation that a state government secretariat will be owing power holding company and there was a time when the secretariat power supply was cut off. If the system had been working like it should, every ministry or parastatal of the government should have its own prepaid meters and be responsible for the power that it consumes. Someone might say, that is for an economy where things work and to be sincere we are the ones who are not making things work because we do not demand for accountability.
These fundamental questions are uppermost on the minds of the people; when does the staffs of these electricity distribution companies come to take reading of the meters that they use to bill the people? How do they determine the power usage of each house? what yardstick do they use to arrive at tbe estimates of the bills that they share? What constitutes those billings? It is highly sad that bills shared are not in any way a reflection of the true power usages of homes that are billed, I stand to be corrected.
There are many communities in darkness because their transformers are not working and when they buy these transformers which ought to be provided by these unprofessional service providers because all the telephone companies from advent of GSM or mobile phones in Nigeria are responsible for the erection and maintenance of their masts. If telecommunications companies can be responsible for their masts to provide services, then why should power holding companies and electricities distribution companies be different.
It is so sad and appalling when elected honorables are seen donating transformers and energizing transformers only for power holding companies and their electricity distribution companies will ask they write a letter donating the transformers to them and they bill people like they were the ones who actually bought, install and energized the transformers. What more can the helpless people of the country do as light is a luxury not a right. When these transformers are faulty and often times in many areas, who will go to the transformers than staffs of the companies and people are billed very exorbitant amounts to repair faulty transformers which generate money for tbe institution.
The system is rigged and it lacked accountability hence the electricity distribution and generation companies despite living in our midst do not see themselves as having a contractual duty and obligations to provide these services that the people are paying for. Today in Nigeria, there are various organs of the government but like some well meaning Nigerians opine that they are all toothless bull dogs who only speak grammar far better than the Britons but they are powerless. The fact remains that when these service providers unions go on strike just to fight back at the government the good people of Nigeria are at the receiving end.
Assuming an independent study was made to restructure the sector, it is a sure thing that it would be dead on arrival because such will not see the light of the day because the system is rigged or better put corrupt. At times the government at the helms might mean well but tbe truth is, no matter how gifted a man or leader is, he can't do the entire work. One example was when President Muhammad Buhari made himself the Minister for Petroleum because he was once the head for Petroleum Trust Fund, today we all know that the sector still have its devils that are at war with that sector.
People are suspect of the new meters which actually is not so available because it is said to be handled by contractors. We have said it times without number, government have no job doing business. There is hardly any business that are undertaken by government that are not bedeviled by corruption and embezzlement. The people who would have been the watchdogs once they collect gratified look the other way, hence we all live and dine with the devil who rapes us all at will, kill us at will, messes us all up and there is nothing we can do about it.
As big as we are as a nation with the need for meters for electricity that nationally could be conservatively put at about 100million meters because that is the least need we have. Where we have people who want to come and invest in Nigeria like the Enron project, it will fail because of gratification or bribery and corruption because people who are in those ministries are all working for their pockets not the good of the nation. The tariff that would be paid at the port is another coat which would make the meters to come at high cost before the people who are at the bottom who will begin to hoard these things.
PEOPLE these are the living problems of this sector. Many of the people who are working in this sector were employed with secondary school leaving certificates and they have risen through the ranks. There was a friend who was employed with his secondary school leaving certificate and by the time he became a graduate and a chartered accountant he was asked by his superiors where he got the certificates from. Since they do not have such qualifications and they know fully well that he would become their superior asked him to resign and reapply rather than be promoted by the fact that he has had an improved qualification than the one they used in employing him.
One truth today is that there are some sections of this country where they enjoy uninterrupted power supply yet they pay almost next to nothing. These are human deficiencies creates by people not God. We are created equally but we know in this nation we are not all equal. The structure and the system we run in this nation does not favor all of us. Even if a minister is from other regions of the country, he understands that some areas are no-go-areas if he wants to remain in office, these are not seta of demons.
In the areas of service delivery we all know the sector is poor but many times despite all meetings with supposed stakeholders who are supposed to know what to do but with all due respect know next to nothing other than, "there is need to increase targets for marketers they need to bring more money into the system" which is the most inhuman part of the system. Irrespective of how much is spent in that sector, it is either substandard products are used or the system is jeopardized by the people who work in the sector so more money can be voted into it.
As a nation we can get it right. We still have patriotic people even those who seem not to care actually care but many times they look at the people who are at the top who collect jombo pays yet they do not do the main works. If we can get the structure right, the system restructured, the people can deliver. As long as we don't, irrespective of whosoever is minister and the money out into the institution it will all continue to fail because of the human factor after all, God will not come down and resolve our energy problems in Nigeria. We have various options that can be complimentary but as long as some people will not be able to share so much money that thing is dead on arrival just like the Ajaokuta steel project remained a comatose project generating next to nothing if it is ever generating.
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