POWER outage is not strange in this land. It is something we have become used to. We are only surprised when light is stable. We keep on wondering what is happening, expecting the light to go off any time. As long as there is light we feel uncomfortable. It is as if something is wrong somewhere; as if we are being propelled by a force to will the power authority to cut light. Call it the force of darkness, you may not be wrong.
Living in darkness has been our lot since the days of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) – the forerunner of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
With the explosion in our population by the time NEPA came into being in 1972, it was obvious that we may be having an energy crisis if we did not do the right things. We relied solely on hydropower for our supply needs then. It was not the era of gas turbines and power plants.
Our inability to get the power sector right has done a lot of havoc to the economy. Many companies are today running below capacity because of irregular power supply. Many have sacked workers to remain afloat and yet many have relocated to other countries where the environment is friendlier. The story does not end there. Others have folded up because they cannot cope. In this category are the textile firms, which used to employ millions of people. Today, the textile industry is dead. Go to the Ikeja Industrial Estate on Oba Akran Avenue and see the carcass of the Nigerian Textile Mills. Many others abound like that in Kaduna and Kano.
The real sector is hard hit by this problem. Manufacturing companies are now comatose because their machines cannot run at optimal capacity. These machines require uninterrupted power to function well.
Like large scale companies, small businesses also suffer from the power problem. They are hard hit because they do not operate an economy of scale. Theirs is a cash and carry business run on the basis of what can be tagged as ‘’pay as you go’’. They cannot expand their businesses easily because they do not have the financial muscle. All they do is subsistence business – trading to get what to eat. These days, they can barely make ends meet because of the terribly low power supply.
Ironically, it is the government that is asking Nigerians to be creative that is killing talents. As it is for businesses, so it is for individuals. In our respective homes, we run a mini-government, providing for ourselves services which should be rendered by the government. We dig boreholes for water supply; we run generators to provide light and through communal efforts we build our own roads. Yet, we pay tax; but we do not see what it is being used for.
Getting power right is crucial to remaking Nigeria. There is nothing we will achieve as a nation if we do not address the power challenge frontally. The privatisation of the sector was meant to achieve this. The gains of the 2001 deregulation of the telecommunication sector opened our eyes to the inherent benefits of getting government out of business.
We were upbeat about the privatisation of power because we thought it would change the electricity supply equation for good. The 2003 unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which succeeded the NEPA in 2005, into 18 successive generation companies (GenCos) and distribution companies (DisCos), was supposed to end our power woes. We never knew that it will mark the beginning. The GenCos and DisCos have been in business for about three years now, yet we have not felt their impact. The other day, a friend disagreed with my observation, saying: “but they have been distributing darkness!” Can you beat that? All we have been getting from these companies are excuses on why they cannot deliver.
It seems they did not bargain for what they are getting. These firms probably thought that they were walking into money by acquiring the assets of the PHCN. They appeared to have forgotten that business is not a bed of roses. Acquisitions are not always what they seem from outside until you get inside. A seasoned businessman does not only look at the assets of a concern, but also at its liabilities. The GenCos and DisCos missed the way by looking at the good side of the books only; they did so because they were thinking only in terms of naira and kobo – that is what is in it for them in the short run and not what they were going to give to customers in the long run in terms of efficient service.
Under them, power supply has collapsed, yet they keep on harassing customers to pay their bills. To pay for services not rendered? In recent times, they have been placing adverts in the papers, threatening to disconnect debtor-customers. What are they waiting for? They should go ahead and start the exercise having fulfilled the requirement of serving customers a notice before disconnecting them. What difference will it make if they disconnect debtors? Have they not thrown the nation into darkness already with their incessant power outages? Those of us not owing them do not enjoy their services. There was nothing to show for the N750 monthly Service Charge they used to collect from us before it was scrapped with the coming of the new tariff last February 1.
They fought tooth and nail to retain the charge because whether or not they gave us light in a particular month, they will be entitled to the money. The DisCos, especially have not been up and doing; they should buckle up in order to win customers’ confidence. We know that there are challenges; but they, as corporate entities, should have factored these into their operations before taking off.
We know all about the gas problem; the clash with former PHCN workers; the vandalism of power plants and cables and the resurgent Niger Delta militancy, but all these cannot justify the DisCos’ poor performance so far. They can do better and I hope they will change for the better before customers rise against them.
NATION
END
Be the first to comment