Fashola: Power Discos Rattled by FG’s Resolution on Service Delivery

The seeming suspicious mode of relationship between the federal government and electricity distribution companies (Discos) in Nigeria’s power sector on Friday got a little more scrappier with new claims by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, that the government’s resolve to get the Discos to live by the terms of their service agreements had rattled them hence a media attack on him.

Fashola in a statement he personally signed and sent to THISDAY in Abuja, spared few words in criticising the reactions of the Discos to his directive to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) some weeks back, to take up regulatory actions to get the Discos to do their jobs.

Also, the minister lampooned the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Mr. Sunday Oduntan, who responded to his orders for the Discos. He specifically called Oduntan an interloper.

“My directives on improved service delivery in the power sector went to legal entities, not to an interloper claimed,” said Fashola.

Continuing, he stated: “Before fiction becomes fact for lack of a response, I feel obliged to respond to some, not all of the allegations credited to one Mr. Sunday Oduntan, who presents himself as Executive Director, Research and Advocacy of the Association of (Nigerian) Electricity Distributors (ANED), which he made in response to my directives to NERC (the regulator) and BPE/NBET as contracting parties to the Discos.

“Throughout my press statement which contained the directives, I referred copiously to the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) which is the law that regulates the power sector. I referred to Discos in their capacities as licensees.

“Mr. Oduntan should tell members of the public if ANED is a licensee. He should tell the public whether he is an investor in a Disco and in which Disco he has invested and what he invested. If ANED is not a licensee, who is ANED? An NGO? If so, they should listen to consumers because nothing is going on about poor service.”

According to him, “It is obvious that the warning lights of compliance necessity are blinking, and those he represents do not like the colour.”

He noted that the NERC and other government agencies he asked to take up their jobs in the sector, had contracts with the Discos not ANED.

He also stated that while power supply had some economic consequences and political relevance, it did not mean the demand for improvement in service delivery was politically motivated, adding that the onset of elections in 2019 did not preclude request for better service from the Discos.

Fashola alleged that Oduntan’s response to his directives was indicative of the mind-sets of the Discos.

“His statement that no directives from me will save the power sector from collapse, is consistent with the views of someone who has no skin in the game. It is perhaps a Freudian revelation of the mind-set of those he represents, whoever they may be.

“It is revealing of the mind-set of a saboteur, not a builder, and he would do very well to acquaint himself and advise his co-travelers about the consequences of sabotaging the economy under our laws,” he explained.