Steady Electricity: How Long Do We Wait?
By Kanayo Esinulo
There was a huge joy among informed Nigerians when the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was finally unbundled by the federal government through its agencies, the Ministry of Power, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) which were the reform driving agency. Those who took time to monitor the national mood say that there was, indeed, a deep sense of relief for, let’s face it, PHCN, better known nationwide as ‘NEPA’ had become a serious obstacle to national development and a big embarrassment to Nigeria. I still remember a commentator on an international news network, Aljazerra, gleefully describing Nigeria as ‘the darkest country in the world’. I wouldn’t know how true that assertion was, but its message was clear: Nigeria needed to do something really urgent about its electricity, if it must make good its desire to be among the twenty largest economies by the Year 2020.
One sure way of getting there, therefore, was not to continue to leave power generation and distribution in the hands of civil-service oriented PHCN. The company needed to be privatised, its corruption-ridden culture replaced with a productivity , service delivery and profit driven structure under completely new owners. The power sector, as it is in most parts of the world, is better driven by the private sector; that is if Nigeria truly desires to move from darkness to light. The point must be emphasized that Nigerians were somewhat joyous and excited at the good news that PHCN, which has been on life support all these years, incapacitated from within by a dominant and resident mafia that frustrated all efforts to rescue it from itself, was about to breath its last. Nigerians are, therefore, justified in their expectation that “electricity supply is gonna be better pretty soon”, as my neighbour was fond of saying from across his fence. Almost three months down the line, the same Nigerians that the federal government worked so hard to bail out from the incompetence and deep corruption inherent in the power holding company are yet to benefit from the exercise.
The new owners, we hope, are reliable actors in the power sector and may have been chosen because of their expressed interest, deep knowledge of the power sector, appreciation of this government’s determination and commitment to totally reform that sector of the economy, deploy enough expertise and capital to revive generation and distribution, and deliver steady and possibly uninterrupted electricity to Nigerian homes, offices and industries. These humble expectations are not, by any means, tall order but tally exactly with what most of our neighbours in West Africa – Benin Republic, Ghana, Burkina Faso and The Ivory Coast have been enjoying for years. We have envied them enough and we thought that with all the hard work and focus put into this electricity reform enterprise by the Power Ministry and the Presidential Task Force on Power led by Prof. Chinedu Nebo and Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack respectively, the Generation and Distribution companies that are now the new owners would have, at least, by now, started to improve on what they met.
In any case, how did these smaller countries in West Africa come to have steady power supply – even some say uninterrupted – many years before Nigeria even began to seriously plan to tackle the problems posed by poor and inadequate electricity for its people? Wasn’t it until recently that we even began to discuss the matter with any seriousness? As we were growing up in the then Eastern Nigeria in the 60s, we knew the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and it never kept us in darkness. It served with commitment and patriotism. Their monthly bills were affordable and justifiable. There were no ‘outrageous or crazy bills’ as we are witnessing today, and supply was good and reliable. Even when ECN had to carry out major repair or maintenance job, the radio stations would keep up the publicity for days before it finally happened. The intervention of the military in government halted all that, and the dependable corporation was among the victims of policies pursued by a succession of Nigeria’s visionless military administrations. Unquestionably, the military succeeded in distorting Nigeria’s planned growth and development. A highly technical area like the power sector became a dumping ground for political recruits and treated like a conquered territory for a horrible formula called ‘quota system’. That was the beginning of the problems of electricity in Nigeria. An organisation that is highly technical and technology-driven became a victim of federal character. Consequently, morale sagged and before we all knew what was happening, the place was swept off the ground and labour aristocrats took over. The organisation was renamed National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), as if change of name would bring back efficiency and competence and halt the decay at the place. Another exercise in the change of name, this time to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) did not rescue the dying octopus from heading to the mortuary – its ultimate destination.
In my view, reliable electricity is a legacy that this government must leave behind and continue to pursue with vigour and determination. The new owners must be constantly reminded by relevant federal government agencies – the PTFP and the Power Ministry – that there is something particularly sacrosanct about the June 2014 new dateline for power outages to be really few. This can be achieved if monitoring by relevant the federal establishments is taken seriously. Three months should be enough time for the new owners to settle down and get the grid working and busy, unless they have another agenda quite different from the federal government’s. Nigerians have suffered enough and our country should be allowed to move on. What reasons are the new owners giving us for the delay in improving on what they inherited from the unbundled PHCN? What stories again? The storylines are almost the same but the packaging is different. They complain of problems associated with gas supplies to the plants, pipeline vandalism, poor generation and therefore very little power to distribute. They say that we moved from 4,517 megawatts generated in the country in December 2012 to the low point of 3,583 megawatts by December 2013, mainly because of poor generation. Why the downward movement? One ready-made answer is that gas shortage continues to push down the capacity to generate and distribute. But no one remembers to point finger at the danger and problem posed by using the same incompetent and largely corrupt ‘NEPA’ staff to execute the current power reform projects by the new owners.
The federal government, under President Jonathan’s dogged leadership has, in my view, done what it should do by liberating the sector from a disgusting government monopoly to creating the opportunity for market forces to interplay and compete in a fair manner. We should now lay down our complaints and anger at the doorstep of the new owners, and squarely hold them responsible if the darkness persists. Dr. Sam Amadi must demonstrate courage by rejecting some of the excuses that the new owners present as obstacles, so that at the end of the day, Nigerians may begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. Privatised power markets all over the world survive or crash through regulatory efficacy or the lack of it. Private owners, being capitalists, are versed in manipulating regulation and, where and when possible, capture the regulatory body and get it to do their bidding. In the coming months, Sam Amadi and his team hold the key to the stabilisation of this young market. Market laxity and reckless unchecked impunity by the trading partners will spell doom for the viability of the market. And, believe me, if this persists, the landmark efforts of this administration to transform the most critical sector of our economy may face a gloomy future. God forbid!
First published in TheNEWS magazine
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