“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” While government ponders its proposed declaration of an emergency on power, the real emergency is here-in our homes, offices, businesses and communities! Nigeria is under a pall of darkness. My secretary tells me she gets power for no more than one hour a day in her area. In one street in Lekki Phase 1, I’m told they get electricity from PHCN for exactly twenty minutes every day, presumably to allow them iron their clothes! The problem is, before the residents gather their clothes, plug the iron and wait for the iron to get hot enough, the light is gone again-for the next twenty four hours!
A neighbour who is reasonably wealthy told me he had just bought an inverter, after discovering that he was spending N200, 000 monthly purchasing diesel to fuel his high capacity generator. My immediate neighbour, a fairly elderly stockbroker who is having enough problems dealing with business challenges after the capital market collapse, recently had to buy a new soundproof generator plus an inverter in order to live comfortably during the dusk to dawn hours and weekends he spends at home. Well both the generator and inverter are now damaged, probably from overuse, less than six months later! Now he has petitioned the Consumer Protection Agency against the generator seller and has in the meantime had to lease a new noisy generator! We his neighbours can’t complain about the noise of the machine, because we know the fellow simply had no choice and we are all co-victims of a self-destructive system.
In my office, the service charge is now three times our rent-ninety percent of the expense is related to diesel purchase. One day last week, the generator broke down so the lift could not be switched on. A fairly elderly tenant, an executive director in a property investment firm collapsed and died climbing the stairs to the fourth floor-another soul consumed by Nigeria’s wickedness! Some businesses in the building clearly can no longer afford the service charge, so lawyers’ letters are flying! Soon more businesses will close down, and more jobs will be lost. The average Nigerian including low income earners now own a generator-the only differentiator is the size and capacity. The poor buy small petrol generators (“I better pass my neighbour”) and the better-off buy larger soundproof diesel generators, with everyone else somewhere in between. Invariably all Nigerians are devoting significant resources out of their limited income to fuelling and servicing their power generators, money that would otherwise have gone to food, education, or other necessities of life.
The fate of small businesses can only be imagined-hair-dressers, soft drink shops, canteens, small supermarkets and pharmacies, vulcanisers, barbers, drycleaners and the like. Or nursery schools, business centres, internet cafes and professional practices. While the state and local governments are increasing their revenue drive in response to lower oil revenue, firms, businesses and self-employed persons are struggling with debilitating alternative energy costs, in addition of course to alternative postal and courier delivery costs, alternative security costs, alternative water costs, increased cost of office consumables in addition to employee wage demands-which are increasing in response to inflation and Naira devaluation. Even big businesses are under pressure, assailed on all sides-higher import costs, higher interest rates, state and local government revenue officials, unions who want higher wages, and soaring costs of power. So invariably poverty and unemployment is increasing, and so will crime and insecurity!
Now PHCN provides a maximum of four hours a day of electricity in most communities. Many people now have different levels of supplementation to PHCN power-candles, lanterns, torch lights, rechargeable lamps, inverters, and generators. Inverters in particular are the new game in town. Everyone either has bought one or is about to buy one. I don’t know what the bureaucrats in the power sector tell the President-that they have stabilised power at 3,000 MW or whatever? That they have increased the amount of power generated and transmitted? That rats ate the power cables? That the water level will soon rise? That things are getting better? Whatever it is they are telling the President, Nigerians know the truth, and that is that we now have a real power emergency on our hands!
What is wrong with our country? Why have we decided to hold ourselves down in poverty and under-development when we really do not have to be in this situation? Why do we refuse to do the right things? The situation has become so serious that the leading legal firm, AELEX is flying in the Ghanaian Energy Minister tomorrow to tell us how Ghana kept the lights on. Perhaps our case requires a supernatural solution. May be we should pray that “…the Spirit of God” should move “upon the face of the waters” in Nigeria and God should say, “Let there be light…” Amen.
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