Shortly after my last piece on the power sector titled: Minister Adelabu: Perish the Thought, published on Sunday, February 18, 2024, I had a chance to meet with the minister at the Ibadan Airport. His first comments were shocking. He simply told our common friend, this is the man who has been attacking me. I was shocked because the two articles I had written on the power sector between September last year and February were clear advice to a supposed compatriot. Even as I denied any such attack on him, he kept insisting ‘I know what I am saying…’
His conclusion was bewildering because the articles I have written on the sector were clear evidence of personal research, which I believe could come in handy for any minister. On September 3, 2023, I wrote the first with the title: Power Sector: The rot Adelabu must clear. In February, I advised the minister to perish the thought of seeking the removal of electricity subsidy, especially as it looked as if it was IMF-advised. The articles were written in English and I never expected any speaker of that language to claim he has read the articles and came to the kind of conclusion I heard from our minister.
In any case, I later got to see the long list of the said offensive articles, and lo, and behold, some of the the statements I wrote in response to his attacks on the government of Oyo State, while I served as the Chief Press Secretary to the governor featured prominently. I think any public officer needs not to mix apples and oranges and call them the same name. If you criticize a government that I serve as spokesperson, I must straighten your misconceptions. Those are not attacks, brother.
Now that the minister has got his wish and the NERC has announced a tariff increase for the so-called Band A customers, I believe the time is still there for him to look at the basic challenges in the sector and fix a few for posterity. I heard that the minister was complaining that his major critics are from Oyo State whereas Oyo is not the only state with an indigine in the federal cabinet. Fine and good, our people have ready answers to that thinking. They say that if two brothers go into the closet to hold a serious discussion and come out smiling, they have not discussed the real issues. Truth is bitter, but only those who love you sincerely will offer to say it as it is.
The NERC has indeed adopted the “sugar coating” propaganda strategy to market its ‘Band A’ customer lingo and ram a new tariff down the throat of Nigerians. I am sure fewer places are enjoying the so-called Band A service than as claimed by NERC. In my estate in Abuja for instance, houses that share fences are placed on different bands. That tells me nothing is scientific about the claim of Band A or E. One question we have not asked is this, the DISCOS increased tariffs many times under President Buhari, how come such increments never translated to better service?
My concern has always been the performance rating of the DISCOS. Much as the government can make excuses about gas supply and all that, including the claim that the problems of the power sector are 60 years old and cannot vanish overnight, the fact remains that the owners of the DISCOS offered to serve in that sector and they signed a service level agreement with the Federal Government. As much as the government is ready to meet them halfway, they must show evidence of their readiness to also provide service. Why should we be spoon-feeding them when all they do is lay claims to the Multi-Year Tariff Order to increase tariff and then return with excuses that propel darkness? As the government is demanding that customers pay more for electricity, what is it demanding of the DISCOS in terms of service level agreement?
Some years back, I was on a delegation that visited one of the DISCOs during a customer forum. The complaints and requests for transformers at the meeting were like 12. But the DISCO only claimed to have two brand new transformers in its store and two others being refurbished. Meanwhile, its jurisdiction covers the entire geopolitical zone.
The story is the same for all the DISCOS. None is changing obsolete transformers and cables. They are just taking us back to the NEPA days, when all you see on the streets are ladder-bearing characters parading to cut people’s cables, especially around Ibadan Disco. As we speak, our communities are still raising funds to fix transformers, the distribution companies only care about collecting money from under-served customers.
If Minister Adelabu must be seen to be working for the people, he must order a ban on estimated billing immediately. Let the DISCOS find loans from wherever and procure meters for all their customers. Let them deploy technology to defeat energy theft and let them deal with insiders in their system who assist some persons to bypass electricity supply. The GENCOS have always been ready to do well. They are supplying more than the DISCOS can carry and they are smiling to the banks as we can see the dividends declared recently. But the problem is with the DISCOS, the TCN. What has happened to the Siemens power initiative by the administration of President Buhari? That deal should have seen the Germany-backed company supply huge support to the Nigerian power sector in generation, transmission, and distribution and it would not cost Nigeria a dime as such. Why can’t we just lap up such an initiative? We won’t because some agencies prefer to keep speaking English grammar as they won’t get a slice of the cash. The Minister must put his feet down and get that project fully actualised, if he doesn’t want to join the long list of technocrats the power sector has demystified.
This piece was first published by Sunday Tribune, dated April 14, 2024
