Nigeria’s power woes

 

If power failure had a nationality, it would probably be Nigerian. If darkness was a person, it would probably hold a Nigerian citizenship or a dual citizenship. When even light winds breeze by, Nigerian power lines fall into deep sleep, plunging millions into thick darkness.

It was only recently that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company slunk into a week-long strike, sinking exasperated residents of Abuja, Kogi, Nasarawa and parts of Edo, Niger and Kaduna States into stygian darkness. But even before the strike, Nigerians in the affected States and all over the country have got used to epileptic power supply and extortionate electric bills.

There is no doubt that as long as the point to be made is about power, Nigeria   produces poor results. As it is with political power and its twisted application and distribution across the country, so it is with electric power and the many businesses strangled because it is epileptic.

Even as Nigerians lurch about in thick darkness, darkly electrifying reports recently emerged from no less a body than the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of the deaths and injuries Nigerians have sustained in the last eighteen months from electricity- related accidents.

An analysis of the reports spanning the first quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021 showed that 126 Nigerians were killed in the period while 68 were injured.

As long as the conversation is about electricity, Nigerians seem to have a problem. From those who are not connected at all, to those who experience epileptic power supply, to those who cannot get prepaid meters, to those who have all manner of situations with the billing system, it is one long queue of very angry Nigerian electricity consumers.

But who is to blame? In a country where passing the buck is a royal ritual in public offices and among public officers, who is responsible for Nigeria`s power woes? It is a millennial scandal that the giant of Africa is still unable to adequately power itself more than six decades after independence.

Will Nigerians ever savour unfailing power supply in their country? Will Nigerians ever see the day when 24-hour power supply will be taken for granted even in the most remote of villages?

Will Nigerian children ever lose the electric excitement that greets the restoration of power in Nigeria with shouts of ‘Up Nepa!’? When will Nigerian businesses be truly enlivened by constant power supply at reasonable costs?

It is no surprise that a sector shred of transparency continues to emit deep darkness into Nigerian homes giving cover to terrorism and poverty in the process. What has been done to the one under whose watch as President of the country sixteen billion US dollars disappeared into the power sector with nothing to show for it?

There is no doubt that there are those who continue to benefit from the fact that Nigerians live in darkness. When will all those who have conspired to consign Nigerians to unending darkness fall under the light of prosecution and consequent incarceration?

In these times of global warming and climate change, when will the generators which provide the fumes that pollute the environment finally fall into disuse? As for the criminals who vandalize power installations thus making the provision of electric power unreliable and unsustainable, there can never be any excuse for such heinous crimes.

For the country to work again, power supply has to improve dramatically. In a country rife with unemployment, the cost of alternative power supply should no longer be allowed to rise unchecked until small and medium enterprises check into oblivion.

Of course, as long as life remains as cheap as salt in Nigeria, its sanctity sacrilegiously shred by a confluence of terrifying factors that is uniquely Nigerian, Nigerians will continue to die from electrocution and other electricity-related accidents.

In country where the frustration of the citizenry collides daily with government dereliction, it is unsurprising that even a dearth of power supply supplies deaths.

To stem the surge of deaths, the parties responsible for providing safe electricity to Nigerians must be held to the task of doing water-tight jobs. Innocent Nigerians, especially children, must no longer be endangered by shoddy power connections and the use of inferior materials in the process.

It should no longer be enough to wield power bills and the threat of disconnection while running elaborate extortion schemes to corruptly enrich. On their part, Nigerians must also take responsibility for their lives and safety and stay away from power installations they are not equipped with safety protocols to handle. When life or limb is lost to electrocution, the smarts of beating the opaque billing system of the power distribution companies or bypassing them entirely becomes fatal folly.

As with many other things Nigerian, the power sector is stuck in a rot. There is no end in sight. As long as a lack of transparency continue to darken the sector, Nigerians must prepare for dark, dreary days.

Kene Obiezu,                                                                    

keneobezu@gmail.com

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