There are a lot of issues requiring public conversation in Nigeria but we can take them one at a time. Issues of paramount importance to one person may not be of the same to another but issues bothering on national goals can have appreciable followership. There are issues that may not be of interest to the executive and/or legislative arms of government and may never be discussed by either, yet such issues can be of relevance to the generality of the citizens. For instance, a debate on whether Nigeria should have the Senate or the House of Representative in order to reduce the cost of governance would be a no-go area for the National Assembly but have to be taken up through public discourse. It is one of the issues we should talk about. Besides, the issue of electricity and corruption deserve public discussion. I propose that the starting point should be electricity.
It is my belief that if Nigeria can solve the problems of electricity, the road to industrialisation, massive public and self-employment as well as economic diversification will be solved automatically. Even, the issue of population control without the use of birth control drugs and medicines will be solved. I once suggested that the failure of PHCN — or NEPA as it is still commonly referred to — to light up Nigeria is inadvertently promoting population explosion. The argument is that when families are forced to retire into their rooms from 9pm till possibly 5am for seven days a week and repeated for a month and finally a year, particularly in face-me-I-face-you kind of houses, with rooms crowded, with a couple on a bed and the children on mats with lamps put off, what else is expected every year? Procreation is automatically the result! Whereas, if there is electricity, the family, particularly the children, can keep everybody awake till late in the night watching television programmes, thus reducing the hours of interaction between their parents. A study showed that the affordability of small generators — I-better-pass-my-neighbour generators — assisted in promoting interactions among family members in urban areas after long hours of hassles during the day. Now that those kinds of generators are no longer affordable, thanks to government policies fuelling inflation, such families would naturally return to their shells with the expected consequences: more children in a few years. Let us return to more serious issues, in the hope that the government would have learnt some lessons about the relationship between electricity and population control or more appropriately, between poverty and procreation.
Before going deep into the modus operandi of the ‘let’s talk about it’ exercise, it is necessary to acknowledge that the title extension “let’s talk about it” is not my innovation but adopted from the title of one of my favourite radio programmes in Ibadan, anchored by the quincentennial musician, philanthropist and owner of the radio station, Yinka Ayefele, M.O.N, and his bosom friend Enitan Olusegun Bamidele, aka E.O.B. The programme brings up a true-life story or issue brought before the duo and they would ask for solutions from listeners. Albeit, the issues to be considered here are national matters arising requiring citizens’ solutions.
The World Bank, in April last year reported that Nigeria has the largest number of people in the world without access to electricity and that the sector was recording a yearly revenue loss of about $29 billion. It is also on record that despite the privatisation of the electricity sector in 2013 and the promise that the supply would improve thereafter, the story remains the same, even today. Billions of United States dollars have been spent or diverted without favourable results. Actually, there seems to be a case of the more you look the less you see or the more the country spends money on the sector, the less the power generated or distributed. At one time, we were told that the problem had to do with generation of power and, at another, it was that we had generated enough but distribution was the problem, just as too much rain or lack of it can disrupt electricity in Nigeria.
Uncle Bola Ige of blessed memory thought if he handled the power sector, there would be a turnaround within six months. President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him Minister of Mines and Power (1999-2000) but no significant improvement and had to be moved to Ministry of Justice as Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2000-2001). Babatunde Raji Fashola as Governor of Lagos State boasted that power generation and distribution is not rocket science. Given his pedigree as a workaholic and achiever, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), gave him the foreman job with three portfolios, including that of Power. After four years of trial and presumably when asked, at the beginning of another term, which of the portfolios he would like to drop, he did not hesitate to drop the Power that had made him powerless and retained Works and Housing.
Before him was Bert Nnaji, a power engineer so to say. When it seemed he was making some progress, more powerful people in the President Goodluck Jonathan government rose against him, claiming he had vested interests, being an entrepreneur in the private power sector. He had to quit unceremoniously. The man that took over from Raji Fashola was recently sacked. Thus the struggle with darkness continues and unless we tackle it publicly now, all the money and energy spent will be wasted; all efforts at industrialisation will remain a mirage and the country will remain underdeveloped. It is not a matter of God forbid. Human beings too must forbid it. Truly, is power generation and distribution rocket science? I do not share the sentiment that it is.
The problem in the power sector is man-made and the network is very long. I can opine that every minister will have to face challenges from producers of generators, who are foreigners, and know that if Nigeria, being their biggest customer in the world, is able to get it right, they will not only lose significant revenue but there will also be loss of jobs across the value chain of steel producers, metal casting firms, bolt and nuts subsector, et cetera. The other groups in the value chain are petrol and diesel importers and exporters for powering the generators, the battery producers, rechargeable lamp producers, touch-light producers and now the solar panel and inverter producers and importers. The producers and exporters are foreigners while the importers, who largely have franchise from the exporters, are locals or Nigerians. Then there are public or civil servants, who approve the transactions, as well as other middlemen. Besides, there would be some laws that have to be modified and the legislature comes into the picture.
I often wonder whether or if, by law, all electricity production must go through the national grid and if such law is not archaic and needs to be changed? I often hear of state power generation going through the grid? Does electricity generation go through national grids in other countries? Why must we limit power generation to three major sources viz hydro or thermal or gas or solar? Why can we not dedicate solar, for example, to the non-industrial section of the economy and more powerful sources to industrial use, even within a state? Why must a state take permission from the federal government before embarking on power generation and distribution? Why this and why that? These and more are the rationale for public dialogue to light up Nigeria.
What is the modus operandi? The Ministry of Power should be the organiser or moderator and, if reluctant, a non-governmental organisation or media house can take up the assignment. A day will be dedicated to the exercise as National Power Day and a Zoom or Microsoft platform link is provided that anybody around the world can link up to. The main papers will be presented by past ministers of Power who are willing and ready, providing background, challenges and prospects. People all over the world can key in anytime and make contributions or just listen. Since it might be difficult for everyone to contribute, those who could not, can send in their pieces of advice through chat or attachment to e-mail address provided by the organisers. At the end of the day or the second day, the nation is provided with a communique on electronic media, which is later published in national dailies.
We must start finding solutions to our national problems through this kind of national dialogue. Nigeria must make progress through the contributions and commitment of her citizens. Nobody is coming to develop Nigeria for us because our development can spell doom for some countries just as it can serve as liberation for some other countries, particularly African countries. Who will take up this challenge?
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