Nkem Efune
In November 2013, when the Generation Companies (GENCOs) and the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) came into being and took over the assets of the privatized Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as part of the power sector reform of the Jonathan administration, one would have thought the era of epileptic electricity supply in Nigeria was over. This is borne out of the fact that these new investors have brought on board the acclaimed foreign partners and requisite expertise that would have dissuaded the Nigerian factor that hitherto frustrates laudable policies and programs of the Nigerian government.
Essentially, the essence of privatization is to improve on service delivery and performance. Today, the private investors have failed to meet up with their contractual obligation to improve power supply to the Nigerian populace. In fact, the power supply situation seems to have gone from bad to worse since the handing over of the defunct PHCN to GENCOs and DISCOs across the country.
Their frivolous excuses of shortages of gas, water and pipeline vandalism are untenable because these investors in the power have foreknowledge of these problems before coming on board. Therefore, their main concern now should be how to protect their integrity and show some patriotic favor which are now at stake given their obvious failure to deliver on their agreement with the federal government. Nigerians all over have gone through painful period in the hands of heartless contractors and had patiently waited to see a turnaround in the power sector with a view to improving the nation’s economy.
The investors’ new system of operation had been characterized by high estimated billing that is greeted with protests on a daily basis, poor power supply that is gradually sabotaging the economy, lack of communication strategies that breeds mistrust, non-metering leading to poor accountability, complete neglect of the maintenance of key distribution equipment and facility upgrading at zero level. The suffocating pressure of this group of people called new owners is already having a detrimental impact on the consumers. Some of these investors inherited chunks of equipment from the defunct PHCN stores and had failed to use the equipment to develop the power sector, even as virtually all the stores are empty. So, one would ask, where are the equipment?
Most of these companies deliberately reduced the number of staff and yet cannot cater for the remaining ones. They are looking frustrated, for lack materials to satisfactorily carryout their functions.
The uncompromising attitude of the private investors is very unbecoming and questionable. Are they really private investors or are they collaborators to bring down the government of President Goodluck Jonathan whose transformation agenda is to improve on the lives of Nigerians?
It is becoming clearer, where the interest of the investors lies. We should remember that the President accepted to privatize this sector with a sense of purpose in order not to only record achievements, but to improve on the living standard of all, irrespective of our political interest. We must divulge politics from such sensitive area of our national life and projects.
In the past, we had seen and witnessed leaders who converted government property to their personal property or award all contracts to their own private companies with different names. Today, some people’s quest is to get President Jonathan out of power at all cost. Saboteurs are in alliance with greedy and self-centred individuals and groups who call themselves progressive politicians, but God is watching them.
Thank God for His divine intervention, that Afam power station and the Kaduna DISCO are yet to be fully privatized and they should be model to compare the achievements of this sector to save it from eminent collapse. I think these two stations stand out to be different from what we are experiencing nationwide.
Even with the federal government’s directive to the new owners to ensure a significant improvement in power supply by June, 2014, the private investors seem not to be bordered. Similarly, the federal government, through the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, has on many occasions sent warnings to the ten electricity distribution companies to either improve on supply and services or expect some form of regulatory sanctions.
The conspiracy against government and the people of the nation is unthinkable and totally unacceptable. Nigerians must rise up against the enemies of progress. The greater burden, however, lies on the Jonathan administration which must take bold and decisive steps to reverse the retrogressive tendencies being perpetrated by these new owners in the power sector. This is necessary in order to save the power sector from total collapse as well as ensure the success of the power sector reform, which has already gulped whooping sums of the tax payers’ money. And the time to do this is now.
Efune wrote from Kaduna
