The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, must have expected plaudits when he announced last week that the Federal Government would soon add 150 Megawatts to its power generation. The minister, who had attributed the feat to the planned completion of the pilot phase of the Siemens-led Presidential Power Initiative, must have reckoned that even though the pilot phase of the power initiative was coming to a head at the time the entire project was supposed to have been delivered, the fact that additional megawatts were going to be added to the power supply chain should titivate Nigerians. But the news that broke in the early afternoon of that day made sure no one digested the implication of his story. The National Grid had suffered yet another collapse, and that had taken the wind off the minister’s sail. So Nigerians only allowed the news to slide.
News of National Grid collapse these days is a constant killjoy. Amidst Nigerians’ struggle with the different troubles emanating from the various power sector Bands, the sector has added another monthly dosage in National Grid Collapse. Whatever made Nigerians write off NEPA as something that may never yield any good news was almost becoming child splay when compared to the fate of our countrymen in the hands of its successors including PHCN, Discos, Gencos, and TCN. So it was understandable that Nigerians largely ignored the “cheering” news the minister made public on the sidelines of the visit of German President, Frank Walter Steinmeier, last week.
Even when Adelabu told newsmen: “When phase one is complete, Nigeria’s power grid will not remain the same. This project will redefine grid stability and efficiency across the country,” Nigerians only looked the other way.
Just before Adelabu’s revelation, that same day, December 11, a tweet from Nigeria’s National Grid had confirmed the 12th collapse of the grid, this year. If that should be the last this year, we would have had at least one grid collapse for every calendar month of 2024. That is more than depressing, especially for estimated billing customers, who are in the majority, considering that each collapse lasts between three and five days at the minimum. “The major grid setback had occurred and the restoration is to commence,” the grid managers said on Wednesday. An official of the Jos Disco, Dr. Friday Elijah added: “We hope to restore normal power supply to our esteemed customers as soon as the grid supply is restored to normalcy.” You can be sure that no one banked on such an unhelpful refrain they’ve been used to over the years.
Despite that the power sector has offered little or nothing to cheer in recent years, reports coming from the Senate, are, however threatening to compound the depth of dejection. On December 5, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe submitted a report which indicted actors in the power sector of practically fleecing the nation and its citizens. One such news was the report that the nation requires the sum of $25 million or N42 billion to restart the grid each time it collapses. And to think that we have lost such a sum 12 times this year! The report called for “decisive actions” by the government on the saboteurs, including making those within and outside the system pay for their culpability.
One Senator after the other, it was condemnation upon condemnation for the power sector, as Abaribe reeled out the details of his committee’s report. Senate President Godswill Akpabio questioned why governments and communities buy transformers, hand the same over to Discos, and are still asked to pay for installation. He did not add that a month after the installation, the community is served bills, while some characters bearing huge ladders on their shoulders menacingly parade the streets, looking for customers to disconnect for failing to pay the bills.
“The people who took over (power sector) are just making money from those transformers and they are not adding value,” Akpabio said. Other Senators accused the different legs of the power sector of making profit and making Nigerians suffer, while some accused them of collecting money for services they did not render. While all the comments by the distinguished Senators were descriptive of the happenings in the power sector, one dangerous clincher dropped by Akpabio would demand further scrutiny. An enraged Akpabio had told the Senate: “We can make the laws, we can reverse the laws and ask the Federal Government to take back those things (power sector) from them.” That’s a dangerous conclusion to make as it would amount to throwing away the baby and the birth water.
President Goodluck Jonathan perfected the privatisation process of the sector in 2013, some eight years after the passage of the Power Sector Reform Bill, 2005 by the National Assembly. While the privatisation had to be done, the government’s determination came against stiff labour resistance. In effect, almost all the financial gains made by the administration were used to placate the labour in the sector. The good thing is that private hands now control Gencos and Discos.
But unlike the quick fix that the privatization of the telecommunications sector proved to be, the power sector came with huge liabilities. Many of the successful companies that took over the Discos were only apparently moved by the possibility of huge financial gains. They lacked the technical ability and offshore support base and financial ability to turn things around. They made no efforts to change transformers, and old cables, or electrify new areas. They made no efforts to meter their customers and preferred to apply the estimated billing methods just to fleece the people. Rather than mobilise offshore funds with pliable interest rate regimes, they mobilised funds locally, with attendant galloping interests in a short time. What happened is that the companies started falling by the wayside, and the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) had to come to the rescue.
In truth, something was wrong with the privatisation process. But throwing away the baby and the birth water won’t solve the problems. Senator Abaribe, a veteran Chairman of the Power Committee had once described the problems afflicting the sector by saying “For all have sinned…” That, to him, indicates that the regulatory agencies, the parastatals in the sector, and the government share a bit of the problem. Why is it difficult to have every electricity customer metered? Why allow estimated billing? Why would governments and communities donate transformers and cables to Discos without being refunded? Is electricity a business or social service? If we have taken it as a business, every material donated by stakeholders has to be accounted for or repaid with equivalent kilowatts of power.
Above all, the government and other stakeholders have to get hold of those responsible for the endless collapse of the national grid. If the nation has to spend a whopping N42 billion to restart the system after every collapse, no one needs a soothsayer to tell that the economy cannot withstand the reckless greed. The government must get hold of whichever forces are responsible for the perennial grid collapse and save the nation from unmitigated greed. And it must be stopped now.
(Published in the Sunday Tribune December 15, 2024)
