In the early hours of Monday, June 3, 2024, Nigeria experienced a nationwide blackout as electricity workers shut down the national grid. The action was in compliance with the joint directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to down tools over the new minimum wage. But beyond the immediate impact of this shutdown, it is critical to scrutinize the historical context and consider whether electricity consumers have been enjoying constant electricity supply before now.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) reported that the labour union, represented by the influential National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE), shut down all power substations across the nation at around 2:19 am on this fateful Monday. As a result, the entire grid system collapsed, leaving the country without electricity. But this is not the first time electricity workers have flexed their collective muscle to the detriment of consumers in Nigeria’s electricity sector.
In fact, the recently shutdown national grid echoes previous instances of labour unrest within the power sector. Strikes, protests, and industrial actions have been part of the electricity workers’ playbook for years. These disruptions often stem from grievances related to working conditions, wages, and management decisions.
Without a doubt, Nigeria’s power infrastructure has long been plagued by inefficiencies, inadequate maintenance, and outdated equipment. Electricity workers have faced the daunting task of keeping the lights ON despite these challenges. Their efforts, often underappreciated, have kept the nation running, even during times of crisis.
In fact, the national grid’s vulnerabilities have been exposed time and again. From technical glitches to sabotage, electricity workers have grappled with maintaining a fragile system, and thus, not a few electricity consumers have been at the receiving end as instances where communities remain in darkness for up to 6 months are not rare to find across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
For the sake of clarity at this juncture, particularly as to the choice of the headline of this piece, it is germane to elucidate that a colleague despondently announced in the office, “Here is the news, electricity workers have shut down the national grid. In response to his seeming announcement, which he might had considered to be a breaking news, another colleague literarily in a speed of light retorted, and yelled thus: “So what? Does it make a difference?” Given the foregoing, I was inspired to coin the title of this piece thus: “Here is the news: electricity workers shut down national grid, so what?” Does it make a difference?
The reason why the colleague retorted in such an acerbic manner cannot be farfetched as Nigeria’s Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have since the defunct of the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), been struggling todistribute adequate supply of electricity across the nation.
For the sake of clarity, NEPA was a state-owned utility company responsible for electricity generation, transmission, and distribution in Nigeria. It operated from the 1970s until its unbundling in the early 2000s. Without a doubt, NEPA faced numerous challenges, including poor investment, inadequate maintenance of power assets, and a bloated labor force. The government subsidies also perpetuated the notion that electricity should be free. In 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo signed the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSR Act), leading to the formation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as a successor to NEPA.
The PHCN was further unbundled into 18 companies, including the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which took over the transmission sector. TCN’s responsibilities include operating the national grid and ensuring efficient power wheeling at high voltage. Despite its transformation, the nostalgic cry of “Up NEPA!” still resonates with Nigerians, reflecting both the challenges and memories associated with the defunct utility.
Without a doubt, Nigeria’s electricity distribution landscape has long been fraught with challenges, leaving consumers in the dark; both literally and metaphorically. The 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) responsible for delivering electricity to homes, businesses, and industries have faced criticism for their collective inadequate performance.
Delving into the numbers and exploring on why consumers continue to suffer, thereby leaving a grim reality on electricity consumers’ landscape reveal a lot.
According to data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the combined remittance performance of all 11 DisCos in 2020 was a mere 39.25 percent. This means that out of the total revenue generated, only a fraction found its way back to the system.
Breaking it down further, the DisCos achieved a combined billing efficiency of 74.33 percent. In other words, they billed consumers for electricity usage, but the actual collection fell short.
In a similar vein, the collection efficiency stood at 66.50 percent. Despite billing efforts, a significant portion of payments remained uncollected.
In fact, among the DisCos, Ikeja, Eko, and Benin stood out in terms of billing efficiency. However, even their collection rates were not stellar. For instance, Ikeja: billing efficiency of 90.95 percent, collection efficiency of 78.92 percent, and remittance performance of 52.79 percent are deplorable.
As for Eko, billing efficiency of 87.96 percent, collection efficiency of 78.62 percent, and remittance performance of 51.15 percent were recorded, while Benin recorded billing efficiency of 83.96 percent, collection efficiency of 53.11 percent, and remittance performance of 39.16 percent.
On the grimmer side of the records are Yola, Jos and Kaduna with the lowest remittance performances. This is as Yola recorded 16.05 percent, Jos: 21.76 percent and Kaduna: 23.89 percent.
In fact, analyzing from the perspective of revenue shortfall and debt woes, it is expedient to opine that the financial picture is equally grim. Out of the N816.15 billion electricity bill issued to consumers by the DisCos in 2020, only N542.73 billion was paid. This represents a staggering revenue shortfall of N273.42 billion. For examples, Ikeja Disco: Issued an electricity bill of N133 billion but collected only N105.23 billion.
In the bid to come to grip with the reason why a colleague of this writer angrily retorted to another colleague who announced thus, “Here is the news: electricity workers shut down national grid”, “Does that make a difference?” it is expedient to ponder on the following imaginary scenario.
Imagine this: It is the end of another long day, and my colleague finally settling into bed, upon arriving to his Mowe residence in Ogun State from his office in Ogba, Ikeja in Lagos. As a Journalist, his plan was to file his news stories by working from home with his Laptop and personal Wi-Fi, which no doubt eats deep into his disposable income, and in the course of working from home, and also fuels his generator, which, no doubt, is money-consuming; due to high cost of fuel as a result of removal of fuel subsidy.
In fact, pondering over the foregoing challenging scenarios which my colleague experiences by each passing day, it is glaring that anyone that passes through the hassle of epileptic power supply that has been prevalent, particularly since May 29, 2024, will in this context concur with this writer that the situation is capable of making anyone angry and scoring the DISCOs low pass mark in their collective performance.
In my colleague realizes that despite being constantly busy, he has made little progress on his goals and aspirations as a Journalist. Instead, his day was usually filled with running from pillar to pole on how he would buy data for the day’s work, and how he can buy petrol for his generator; even with his meagre salary that is more often not paid at the end of the month. Added to the foregoing frustrations are unproductive meetings, and a flurry of low-value tasks.
Sound familiar? Yes! It sounds familiar. The reason cannot be far fetched as the foregoing experience, which my colleagues unavoidably finds himself in on daily basis is not peculiar to my colleague, and the experience is enough for anyone to see the DISCOs as non-performers, and for anyone to dismiss electricity workers’ shut down of the national grid, and another retort “So what? Does it make a difference?” is not in any way a misnomer.
