When Will Nigeria’s Electricity Supply Be Stable?
For decades now, one of the earliest sentences a new born baby first learns to speak in Nigeria is “Up NEPA”, especially children in the urban and semi-urban centres. Till date, it remains one of the signature excitement lingos in every community. And this is more than ten years after NEPA (National Electricity Power Authority) has changed its name and gone through several transformation in structure and nomenclature. But NEPA or whatever it is now called, is like the ancient leopard that does not change its spots. NEPA and its generational offspring are yet badged with the signature malaise of unstable electricity, and whenever electricity is restored, the community goes agog in the ecstasy of UP NEPA shouts and jubilations.
Yet, it remains one major issue every succeeding government, since the dawn of this democracy, had had to tackle or pretend to tackle. I recall that as the State House correspondent of this newspaper, in late 2001, we had gone to the International Conference Centre Abuja, one Monday morning, for the launch of then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s book: The New Dawn. It was a collection of the many speeches he had made within and outside Nigeria at the time. Then Rev Fr Hassan Kukah was the book reviewer. I recall how he queried the title of the book, asking that if as at 2001, we were just experiencing new dawn as a nation (as the book suggested), then when are we, as a people, going to experience day break and sunshine? Perhaps true to his worry, we have remained bed-straggled at the point of dawn ever since. We have not quite seen sunshine, 20 years after!
At the event, then President Olusegun Obasanjo, when he spoke, lamented about the state of the electricity supply in Nigeria. He claimed that it was a major concern to his government and that his accepting to run for a second term would depend on how much he is able to fix the electricity problem. It turned out a mere political gimmick to make it look like he was so concerned about it and that he could hang his political career on it. He nibbled around it for years without any significant improvement, even though his administration started the unbundling of NEPA and the privatization scheme. But despite the poor showing on electricity supply, President Obasanjo not only went on to contest for second term, he even wanted a third term, no thanks to the manipulative moves of then senate Deputy President, Ibrahim Mantu (who died recently); but for the decisive knock of then Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani. And that ruined that ill plot.
Whatever gain Obasanjo made in the pursuit of stable electricity was halted, if not reversed by late President Yar’Adua, when he suspended all that was going on in that regard. I recall that the House of Reps team, led by Hon Ndudi Elumelu, sent to audit what was on ground got enmeshed in a credibility crisis as the team was accused of being compromised by those building the various power stations across the country. All that caused a huge setback in the quest for stable electricity in the country.
I cannot readily remember if the Goodluck Jonathan administration did anything significant on electricity, except the unbundling of PHCN to three sub-sectors of Generation company Distribution company, and Transmission Company. The essence was to reduce and redistribute the burden of a complex entity like NEPA to three agencies, with the overall aim of improving service delivery. But like the nose of a dog, the more you wash, the darker it becomes. The Energy concern in Nigeria has gone through lots of structural transformation in name and shape, but its ability has remained deformed.
No effort ever seems enough to break the jinx of the electricity enigma. As late Fela Anikulapo would sing: every day na the same thing… Nigerians have got so used to the oddity of darkness and irregular electricity that they seem to have choicelessly adjusted to it.
The Buhari administration is said to have been struggling to ensure that the cost of electricity supply does not increase, as the various DISCOs have been threatening to increase electricity tariff. Secretly, the Buhari administration has thus been subsidizing electricity supply in Nigeria for almost all the time the administration has been in power. Yet, power supply remains epileptic, shamefully.
The Buhari administration practically began building our generation capacity from the scratch, as it inherited less than 3000 megawatts from the Jonathan administration. Whereas a small country like South Africa with less than a third of Nigeria’s population runs with over 58,000 megawatts, Nigeria is still struggling with about 13,000 megawatts today.
Those who understand the technicality of electricity issue explain that the problem is with the distribution, since enough electricity is generated, but the DISCOs lack the capacity to distribute to all Nigerians. That is why even countries like Ghana and Benin Republic which tap from the electricity generated in Nigeria, do have better electricity supply than Nigeria. We don’t all have to be Energy engineers or energy experts. Just give us light as it happens in other countries.
The DISCOs have been pushing some awkward arguments in recent times that if Nigerians are given stable electricity, they will not be able to pay. Indeed, some communities in Lagos, like Magodo et al, for instance, which have entered into some special arrangement with the relevant Distribution companies do enjoy stable electricity supply because they pay almost three times or more, what others are charged.
So, the question is what is so complex about the distribution of generated electricity that Nigeria can neither afford nor get right? If Benin Republic and Ghana can better utilize the generated megawatts from Nigeria, why is Nigeria floundering and fumbling?
Recently, Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba separatist agitator recently arrested and detained in Benin Republic had declared that he’d rather remain in Cotonou, as it has better and more stable electricity supply than Nigeria! That is a country that looks almost like a vassal of Nigeria, as the latter functions as its Oxygen machine. Just why is it looking like stable electricity supply in Nigeria is an enigma? Nigerians are tired of the silly and draggy excuses clothed in technical and obfuscated jargons. The DISCOs should either perform or be sacked. We have suffered and groaned enough!
Many years ago, it was alleged that the association of Generator sellers are the ones doling out financial favours to then NEPA to ensure that electricity supply is not stable, so Nigerian will have to come buy their generators, to keep them in business. Today, Diesel marketers have been joined to the list of those bribing “NEPA” to keep cutting electricity supply.
Crude and pedestrian as the allegation may seem, it does truly appear like there is a connect between generator sellers and the DISCOs. An average home in Lagos has at least one or more generators. Imagine the number of the generators in just a hundred streets in Lagos. That also explains why there is huge consumption of petrol or diesel in the country. Go to a filling station in the evening, the number of people buying into Jerry cans (for generators) is more than the people buying into their cars. The ripple effects of this malaise are unimaginable.
Owning a generator is no longer a status symbol. Everybody has at least one. What defines the status is the size and capacity of the generator you have. The bigger you are, the bigger and more sophisticated your generator will be. As I write this, my ear is buzzing silly with the amalgam of noise from surrounding generators, both from mine and those of my neighbours. Nobody seems to be worrying about the noise pollution or worse still, the environmental pollution these generators cause us. Are we still wondering why we now have all kinds of cancer and strange diseases afflicting us, when we all breathe in toxic and contaminated air?
Back to the Distribution companies (DISCOs), Nigerians feel exploited by the DISCOs. They hold Nigerians to ransom. They cause/compel communities and certain neighbourhoods to contribute money to buy transformers, cables, poles, wires and all sorts of electricity equipment, yet they still bring what they themselves have chosen to call “Crazy Bills”. With the absence of pre-paid meters, the DISCOs have been relishing in sending wild estimated bills to the chagrin of the people. Everything in Nigeria gets complicated. Everything gets corrupted and frustrated. A different company was set up to supply pre-paid meters. But more than ten years after, many communities, towns and cities are yet to be given pre-paid meters, long after the people have even paid for them. The few available ones have to be issued to those who can bribe the most. In my private office, we had applied to Ikeja Distribution Company (IKDC) for over six years for pre-paid meters, fulfilled all their requirements, yet they choose to stick to sending estimated bills, because it pays them better. What kind of country is this!
Also recently, our electricity supply in my FESTAC residence was disconnected because some persons are owing their electricity bills, even when some homes are on prepaid meters. The Eko Distribution Company (EKDC) does not have the mechanism to separate the customers at the feeder pillars. So both those on pre-paid meters and those on estimated billing system are lumped together in the one and same feeder pillar, cubicle etc. And when defaulting customers have to be punished, they are punished along with even pre-paid metered homes.
This is 21stcentury. They collect Bills that reflect the reality of today but still operate with the technology of the pre-Awolowo days.
The painful thing is that electricity has become so central to modern living, and so cannot be ignored or dared. Responsible governments all over the world know this, and that is why it is a cardinal indices of sociometric measurement. How can a country want to develop without electricity? How does the Buhari administration want to create jobs without stable electricity? Have some companies like Michellin not packed out of Nigeria because of poor electricity supply? Not only industries are packing out, many Nigerians are “checking out”, likeAndrew. Go to any embassy and see the volume of Nigerians struggling to get out and you’d understand that all is not well here.
Industries spend humongous sums every year generating their own electricity. The arising cost is transferred on the cost of their finished products. That explains why some locally-produced goods (like even rice) are far more expensive than imported ones. How long shall we have to run round the circle on this matter? It’s practically been so much motion, no movement. What did the advanced countries do to scale over this problem that Nigeria with all its wealth cannot do? Are we jinxed? If heads need to roll, so be it. Let the heads roll in abundance.
Again, we are tired of excuses and unhelpful explanations. Just let there be light!
Many had thought the Buhari administration would decisively tackle the mess in the electricity industry and at least bequeath that legacy of restored and improved electricity supply to Nigerians. But the Buhari administration, as in many areas, has been romancing with the cabals that have ensured that things don’t work in Nigeria.
In desperation, nurtured by frustration, many Nigerians have come to embrace the technology of solar energy and inverter energy, as alternatives. But even then, they do not come cheap and they have their own limitations. How, for instance, would an industrial machine be powered by solar energy or inverter? Yes, they may help to supply light and power few low-capacity items like fans and fridges, they cannot truly take the place of regular electricity.
All said, the Buhari administration still has a slim chance of changing the narrative on this all-important issue. And I dare say, that unless and until we fix the energy issue in Nigeria we would continue to under-fire with all the concomitant drawbacks.