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We
are told that we have a built in
capacity to generate 6,000 megawatts, as
opposed to the 40,000 megawatts we
actually need. Is it that the power
supply companies did not envisage the
population explosion of the 80s, even
though we had epileptic or no power at
all even in the 1970s. The civil
servants claim that the equipment they
have to work with are old, and badly
maintained. I suppose that is the fault
of all of us gullible consumers. After
all, the technicians were sitting in
their work stations, vandalizing the
machine parts with their collaborating
street touts, hoping for juicy
replacement contracts, when we tried to
distract them with our incessant demands
for regular power. Entire neighbourhoods
have been forced to pay power tolls, so
that they can be given transformers,
electric poles and cables. These, I
suppose can be seen as our own
investment in the privatization exercise
currently booming in Nigeria. If you
were unable to buy Nitel and Nicon Noga
Hilton through subscribing to Transcorp
shares, you might as well own a slice of
the Power Holding Companies by supplying
them with the equipment they should have
bought for themselves in the first
place.
? Of course, I hear that the problem of
exorbitant bills being sent to empty
flats, and uncompleted buildings will
soon end, with the introduction of
pre-paid meters. Our hearts are thudding
in trepidation. The hole made by the
G.S.M. phone cards in our pockets, seems
to be in danger of getting larger. Who
exactly are these people, who import and
sell us the power generating sets most
of us can't do without? Have they formed
a serious lobbying cartel that makes
sure that our power source remains an
embarrassing anaemic patient? Someone
said the other day, that they are more
like our guardian angels, saving us from
a life of perpetual darkness. That may
be true, but come on, if you were in
their shoes, would you want power
generation to improve? Nobody wants to
lose a 40-year old gravy wagon that
never dries up. What about this
impending privatization of the power
industry, who will benefit the most from
it? We can split hairs, wondering if our
fat cat politicians, past and present,
will turn around as has been the case,
and buy up the power industry with the
monies they looted from our national and
state treasuries. That however, is not
the major point of concern right now.
What the average Nigerian on the street
wants to know is;
a) Will the coming privatization make
power supply constant?
b) Will the tariff be like the G.S.M
telephony or the International Airline
Ticket costs?
It is an
open secret that Nigeria notoriously
pays the highest ever bills worldwide,
once the latest gadget finds its way to
us. Never mind the fact that almost all
of us have to live on less than one
dollar or was it one Euro a day. Why did
this government leave the power sector
reformation until the very last days of
their tenure? Is it so that if anything
goes wrong, they wouldn't be there to
clean up the mess, or did they need the
relative successes of the reforms in the
telecommunication and banking sector to
buoy up their confidence before tackling
the giant that is power? We are groping
around in the dark looking for the power
to truly industrialize. To consistently
watch our favourite programmes on TV, to
combat the sometimes unbearable heat,
and for the middle-class (whoever they
are) to seriously consider making their
lives easier by using washing machines,
all electric cookers etc. The power to
reasonably expect that gadgets in
hospitals will work, especially when
your daughter has been scheduled for
that life saving surgery. There we go
again, asking for more than we should,
placing ourselves above our stations,
stressing out the poor hard working
government. Ungrateful little
complainers all of us! |
