OPINION!!! Poor Electricity supply and Buhari's Govt
Of all the ingredients vital to a nation’s questfor scientific and technological advancement on the one hand and economic prosperity on the other, none is as critically indispensable as electricity.
The reasons are too self-evident to recount here, but suffice to say that just as the heart is a person’s ‘engine,’ electricity is the wheel on which all other things rotate.By way of comparison, consider what happened following the introduction of GSM in Nigeria in 2001.
No sooner did mobile phones materialise than a thousand and one flowers began to bloom here. Communication experienced a revolution of sorts after decades of depending on NITEL’s criminal inefficiency.
Millions of direct and indirect jobs materialised as if by magic. Mobile banking and hundreds of such other GSM-enabled services became the other of the day. Just to cite a few examples.
As it has been in the GSM sector, so can it be in the power sector.
It is obviously in recognition of this salient act that the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) reserved a pride of place for electricity supply in its manifesto.
In fact, with the exception of the war on terror, the anti-graft campaign and job creation, no other programme was as highly hyped in the APC manifesto as power supply.
Specifically, the then opposition party promised to revitalise electricity generation and distribution significantly within its first year of coming to power. It would then increase the tempo in subsequent years.
This way by the time it rounds off its first four-year term, the country’s abysmal powersituation would have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Or so we were assured.
During the campaign for the 2015 general elections, the then governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, famously declared that it would not take a serious government more than six months to fix the rot in the power sector. Fashola, it so happens, is the incumbent Power Minister; in fact, he has been on the saddle since November 2015. How has the power sector fared in the past six months under his watch and in the past one year under President Muhamadu Buhari’s stewardship?Answer: Not so well. And that’s putting it mildly. Ironically, the first few months of thisadministration had witnessed an appreciable level of electricity supply. For the first time in a long while many sections of the country enjoyed steady power supply for 24 or even 48 hours at a time. This uncommon feat was attributed to what was termed “the Buhari factor.” The President’s body language made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate nonsense. Electricity workers acted accordingly by going the extra mile to ensure constant powersupply.That was then. As weeks turned into months, the usual so-called “Nigeria factor” crept in gradually. From constant power supply, the country relapsed once more to constant blackout so much so that barely a couple of weeks ago, the country earned the dubious distinction of having zero megawatt of electricity. In other words, from the lofty height of experiencing steady power supply this time past year, the country tumbled to the valley of not having even one megawatt of power!Keenly aware of this lamentable situation, the President announced his determination todouble, and then triple, the nation’s power megawatts between this year and 2019. Against the backdrop of the prevailing inadequate power supply, the President’s action plan is a welcome development. At least on paper, that is.What remains to be seen is the political will with which to kick-start the implementation of that goal right away.Even as long suffering Nigerians await Aso Rock’s promised action, the issue of prepaid meters remain a recurring decimal.
Not a fewcitizens are shocked that despite the ‘change’mantra, the scandalous situation where by consumers are billed arbitrarily without beingmetered even after they had fully paid for meters, remain. Many of us are at a loss over why Aso Rock finds it tough to tame this ungodly indulgence of the power firms.In the same vein, the issue of tariff hike despite criminally low power supplies has remained a festering sore. To add insult and salt to injury, none other than a certain Babatunde Raji Fashola has been the undisputed champion of tariff increment. As a legion of compatriots have noted again and again, by championing the cause of the inefficient and greedy power firms at the expense of the common goods, the Minster of Power, Works and Housing, who was hitherto regarded as the face of hope for the APC as a party, has become the opposite.Incidentally, the prevailing period of dismal power supply was compounded by unprecedented fuel shortage on the one handand the seemingly incessant industrial unrest on the other. The result is obvious: despondency and frustration all over. At a time when the country is in the grip of an unusual heat (said to be caused by global warming), poor power supply has been compounded by acute fuel and majority of our compatriots are wondering what is amiss.From whatever angle one looks at it, it is evident that the power sector has not fared very well in the past one year – to put it mildly.
President Muhammadu Buhari has a lotof work in this sector. This is more so as poor electricity supply will inevitably lead to closure of industries which will in turn lead to job losses
The reasons are too self-evident to recount here, but suffice to say that just as the heart is a person’s ‘engine,’ electricity is the wheel on which all other things rotate.By way of comparison, consider what happened following the introduction of GSM in Nigeria in 2001.
No sooner did mobile phones materialise than a thousand and one flowers began to bloom here. Communication experienced a revolution of sorts after decades of depending on NITEL’s criminal inefficiency.
Millions of direct and indirect jobs materialised as if by magic. Mobile banking and hundreds of such other GSM-enabled services became the other of the day. Just to cite a few examples.
As it has been in the GSM sector, so can it be in the power sector.
It is obviously in recognition of this salient act that the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) reserved a pride of place for electricity supply in its manifesto.
In fact, with the exception of the war on terror, the anti-graft campaign and job creation, no other programme was as highly hyped in the APC manifesto as power supply.
Specifically, the then opposition party promised to revitalise electricity generation and distribution significantly within its first year of coming to power. It would then increase the tempo in subsequent years.
This way by the time it rounds off its first four-year term, the country’s abysmal powersituation would have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Or so we were assured.
During the campaign for the 2015 general elections, the then governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, famously declared that it would not take a serious government more than six months to fix the rot in the power sector. Fashola, it so happens, is the incumbent Power Minister; in fact, he has been on the saddle since November 2015. How has the power sector fared in the past six months under his watch and in the past one year under President Muhamadu Buhari’s stewardship?Answer: Not so well. And that’s putting it mildly. Ironically, the first few months of thisadministration had witnessed an appreciable level of electricity supply. For the first time in a long while many sections of the country enjoyed steady power supply for 24 or even 48 hours at a time. This uncommon feat was attributed to what was termed “the Buhari factor.” The President’s body language made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate nonsense. Electricity workers acted accordingly by going the extra mile to ensure constant powersupply.That was then. As weeks turned into months, the usual so-called “Nigeria factor” crept in gradually. From constant power supply, the country relapsed once more to constant blackout so much so that barely a couple of weeks ago, the country earned the dubious distinction of having zero megawatt of electricity. In other words, from the lofty height of experiencing steady power supply this time past year, the country tumbled to the valley of not having even one megawatt of power!Keenly aware of this lamentable situation, the President announced his determination todouble, and then triple, the nation’s power megawatts between this year and 2019. Against the backdrop of the prevailing inadequate power supply, the President’s action plan is a welcome development. At least on paper, that is.What remains to be seen is the political will with which to kick-start the implementation of that goal right away.Even as long suffering Nigerians await Aso Rock’s promised action, the issue of prepaid meters remain a recurring decimal.
Not a fewcitizens are shocked that despite the ‘change’mantra, the scandalous situation where by consumers are billed arbitrarily without beingmetered even after they had fully paid for meters, remain. Many of us are at a loss over why Aso Rock finds it tough to tame this ungodly indulgence of the power firms.In the same vein, the issue of tariff hike despite criminally low power supplies has remained a festering sore. To add insult and salt to injury, none other than a certain Babatunde Raji Fashola has been the undisputed champion of tariff increment. As a legion of compatriots have noted again and again, by championing the cause of the inefficient and greedy power firms at the expense of the common goods, the Minster of Power, Works and Housing, who was hitherto regarded as the face of hope for the APC as a party, has become the opposite.Incidentally, the prevailing period of dismal power supply was compounded by unprecedented fuel shortage on the one handand the seemingly incessant industrial unrest on the other. The result is obvious: despondency and frustration all over. At a time when the country is in the grip of an unusual heat (said to be caused by global warming), poor power supply has been compounded by acute fuel and majority of our compatriots are wondering what is amiss.From whatever angle one looks at it, it is evident that the power sector has not fared very well in the past one year – to put it mildly.
President Muhammadu Buhari has a lotof work in this sector. This is more so as poor electricity supply will inevitably lead to closure of industries which will in turn lead to job losses
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