Pulse Opinion: Let’s admit it, there is nothing like 'power sector' in Nigeria any longer

Last night, as I climbed the stairs to my apartment somewhere in Surulere, Lagos, at about midnight, I lost my footing, landed on my back and rolled down the staircase, while clutching my laptop bag like my life depended on it—because these days, it actually does.

It was pitch dark on the stairways and it’s been that way for seven days and counting. I have had no power in my neighborhood since last week. As I lurched my way into an equally pitch black apartment while clutching my legs in agony, my smartphone rang.

It was the landlord.

“Oga Jude, dem no bring light today again o. Abeg make everybody contribute small money make we take buy petrol tomorrow to pump water”, my landlord said in a dejected, Igbo accent.

My food is rotting in the fridge and my clothes haven't seen an iron in days. The television set should be forgiven for becoming a home to cockroaches and the water dispenser has become an oven. Out there, robbers lurk behind dark streets to rape, scare and seize at gunpoint. I reside in the world's biggest shithole called Nigeria.

Nigeria's electricity sector has all but collapsed (ThisDay) Pulse Nigeria

If we are being honest with ourselves here, there is actually nothing like a power sector in Nigeria any more than there is manna falling from heaven. The last time I heard from former power minister Babatunde Raji Fashola, he was telling subscribers who are being ripped off by the clowns who purchased the nation’s power assets in 2013, that there is little the government can do in the circumstances.

So here we are, in mid-2019, generating and distributing a little over 2,000 megawatts for a nation of some 200 million people. Here we are, brow beaten to scream our lungs out in ephemeral excitement whenever we are blessed with a flicker of public power in our apartments.

We have been conditioned to praise the distribution companies if they leave the lights on for two hours at least. “Dem don try today”, we say, before running downstairs to pull the generator string to breaking point.

The noisy generators daily inflict damage on our respiratory and auditory systems, but the next day, we are back to those contraptions from hell because without them, we’d be out of work and our economy would ground to its knees.

Even Aso Rock, the nation’s seat of power and the national assembly, budget huge sums of money in petrol and diesel cost annually to run an inefficient bureaucracy. What this tells you is that even government hasn’t got a clue on how to fix this thing.

Former NERC Chairman, Sam Amadi says Jonathan sold the power sector to players who had no clue (Guardian) ece-auto-gen

A fortnight ago, Dr. Sam Amadi, former Executive Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) admitted that the nation’s power sector privatization exercise of the Goodluck Jonathan era, was a scam—an edifice built to collapse.

“The power sector was designed to fail. We failed to corporatise and commercialize before privatizing; we privatize senselessly without paying attention to context and corporate governance and regulatory regime; we sold to investors who lacked capacity. The World Bank doubted that we could sell the Discos (Distribution Companies). We surprised the World Bank and we rejoiced but we did not know we sold to 'straw-men’”, Amadi said.

He was confirming what everyone already knew about the corruption laden privatization of the power sector.

I am aware that the Muhammadu Buhari led federal government is loath to review the privatization of the power sector because that would mean government not respecting contracts and setting up a bad precedence.

But reviewing that shoddy sale of the power sector to buccaneers and cronies, most of whom knew next to nothing about power generation and distribution, is exactly what Buhari should do in his second term in office.

Nigerians have suffered for far too long in darkness and the generator companies, most of whom are owned by the leadership class, have been making a killing since this nation attained independence in 1960. People pay for power they never used and electricity staff appear to enjoy visiting darkness and more misery on the people.

Fashola and Buhari at the APC situation room during the 2019 elections (APC media) Pulse Nigeria

What we need is a brand new power sector built without the decayed foundation of the old. We need new investors who understand what it means to generate and distribute power and who understand what cost reflective tariff actually means. We need people who actually know how to run businesses and a government regulator ready to whip insensitive players into line.

Please excuse me as I go power on my noisy generator downstairs. This laptop is almost out of juice.

Oh, the agony!