By Adisa Gbadamosi
It has been
said from times immemorial that the truth is bitter.
In terms of the cause of poor electricity supply
ravaging the nation nowadays, that fact was brought
home vividly by a statement issued by the office of the
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Raji Babatunde Fashola,
SAN. In a statement issued by one of his aides,
the Minister said it was immoral to expect the Federal
Government to blame electricity distribution companies
called Discos for the poor electricity supply in the
nation.
Ostensibly, the
honourable power minister was responding proactively to
the news that the House of Representatives had
invited him and stakeholders in the electricity industry to a
meeting to explain the cause of power
failure in Nigeria. The press statement
was, therefore, meant to apprise the legislators
before-hand till he eventually showed up
physically in the House for grilling on the
subject. In effect the minister killed the
proverbial two birds with one stone. He answered the
question of the legislators from afar as it were.
He also allayed their fears also at a
safe distance on the mistaken notion that
the Discos were the culprits of the poor power supply
problem in the country. Let me state clearly as a
keen observer of the power sector and its
development in the right direction in Nigeria that I
find the pronouncements and statements of the
minister candid, informed and most patriotic. In
particular , I urge our lawmakers to
emulate these virtues even as they grandstand to nail
perceived culprits for the poor supply even
though the cause is well known to all Nigerians
except perhaps our legislators and trade
union leaders.
The minister’s statement pointed out some facts. The
first was that pipeline vandalisation had disrupted and
decreased electricity supply massively nationwide
and power generation, and transmission had suffered
massively and such distribution had
been scanty all over the nation. The second is that
many government parastatals and institutions owe the
distribution companies a lot of money
predating his recent appointment as Minister of
Power thus tying his hands to stop the
Discos from demanding immediate payment from such
government agencies or have them face massive
disconnection. Which ipso facto is the legal
resort for such breach of payment in the
face of continuous enjoyment without payment of
electricity supply by these government facilities and
corporations .
The third was
the fact unknown to many in the public that the
Federal Government before the advent of this
administration had sold its ownership in the power companies
and had no control over them in terms of generation and
distribution of electricity. The minister admitted that aside
from the violation of the law inherent in assuming false
ownership and giving futile orders, there was the dangerous risk
of creating a potential rash of litigation in
the advice in some quarters to stop the Discos from
realising revenue for sold services both now and
in the past. Especially from government institutions which have
become brazen debtors to Discos which are
privately owned by equally patriotic and hard
working Nigerian businessmen and astute investors. In
addition the minister harped on the fact that the
Discos charged cost reflective tariffs approved
for them by law and it would be again immoral for government
whose agencies owe the Discos so much to ask
the Discos not to take money for
services rendered .
Indeed to support the minister on this stance
was the advice he offered Nigerians when the Senate
summoned him earlier in the year to explain the new
electricity tariffs approved for the Discos by the
Electricity Regulation Commission of Nigeria (ERCN).
Unfortunately, the Nigerian Senate stopped the new tariff
increase rather wrongly. The minister said then
that the increased electricity tariffs were like
bitter quinine which ultimately will make life
better for any patient or victim of malaria.
That example was very apt and instructive but the
Senate ignored it then and electricity generation and
distribution took a nosedive even before the
vandalisation reached the present uncontrollable situation.
If you add to that the fact that the union
leaders asked Nigerians to go on strike because of the
new tariffs in electricity alongside the fuel price hike of
N145, then you must admit that it was
indeed honourable of the minister to say publicly that it
would be immoral to blame the Discos for poor electricity supply as
the unions had done so unpatriotically.
*Gbadamosi, an
engineer, contributed this piece from Iseyin, Oyo State
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