By Rose Moses
When sometime in May, last year, President Muhammadu Buhari, in an outburst, asked, ‘where is the power, where is the power,’ one would have thought that by now the elusive power would have been found. Or at least, the witches and wizards once said to have been holding this power from lightening up the nation would have been decisively dealt with. That obviously isn’t the case yet.
The president, who was responding to criticisms against his government by a former head of state, in looking for the power, was actually alluding to huge amount of money sunk into the sector by the past leader with little or nothing to show for it.
And so, while insisting that past administrations failed to invest in infrastructure in the country, the president was throwing the jibe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, though he didn’t mention his name, for spending $16bn on power projects during his tenure without corresponding power supply to Nigerians.
President Buhari reportedly spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving members of the Buhari Support Organisation led by Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, and gave indications that no roads, either, were repaired in the country after his days at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
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He was generously quoted on the occasion as saying, “You know more than I do the condition of roads. Some of them were not repaired since PTF days. No matter what opinion you have about late Gen. Sani Abacha, I agreed to work with him and the PTF. We constructed roads from here (Abuja) to Port Harcourt, to Onitsha, to Benin and so on.
“This was in addition to other things in education, medical care and so on. You know the rail was killed and one of the former Heads of State between that time was bragging that he spent more than 15 billion American dollars, not naira, on power. Where is the power? Where is the power?”
The president, on that occasion, also reserved some jibes for the National Assembly, wondering what most of the members, some of who have spent over 10 years there, were doing.
“Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?” he queried.
Our president therefore said anybody who claimed to be fighting for the country should not be misappropriating or misapplying the nation’s funds the way some people did. And we agree.
However, several months after looking for this power, and having almost come to an end of his first tenure and on the heels of another four-year tenure by virtue of his declaration as winner of the 2019 presidential election for a country that transacts, or ought to transact business every day, most Nigerians are still looking for the power!
In most neighbourhoods across the country, residents are asking also, “Where is the power’, after so many promises and practically still living in darkness.
And because the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), or whatever name the electricity company now goes by, holds the monopoly on when and how you get to be supplied with electricity, there is little anyone can do other than submit to its whims and caprices.
They give and take power at will in areas that are lucky to be supplied few hours of electricity in a day. Sometimes, the voltage is low. Sometimes it could be so high to the point of blowing up appliances with home owners solely responsible for replacement of damaged items.
Artisans, who need electricity to do some of their jobs are helpless because there is hardly electricity supply for them to work with. Many small scale businesses actually go under before they could leap as they find themselves running on diesel 24/7 for days on end, which really eats up capital meant for other things.
While most businesses today in Nigeria are struggling to survive the pain of unstable power supply, many others have left the country as a result of the un-conducive environment, thereby adding to the high unemployment rate.
If you are living in an area that gets up to eight hours supply of electricity per day, you must, no doubt, be singing Hallelujah.
In fact, some neighbourhoods in cities as big as Lagos actually go without electricity for months. It is so bad that Nigerians now seem to have gotten so used to hard
times that some often try to justify this
painful and avoidable situation as normal, even when they have to pay for services not rendered.
The entire system is so wicked to the ordinary man, really, to the extent that getting prepaid meters that would ensure you don’t have to pay for electricity not consumed, is akin to the biblical camel passing through the eye of a needle.
As such, Nigerians still get crazy bills for electricity that was never supplied or consumed. And they get harassed with threats of bringing down their wires if they don’t pay the outrageous bills.
Indeed, Nigerians are about the few people on earth that pay for services not rendered. Most times they even do so with a cheerful face. Taxes are deducted at source from most workers. Same for pension schemes, which some retirees would be forced to go queue up for until they drop dead.
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Yet, in most neighbourhoods, it is the residents that have to fix their roads themselves. They have to pump their own water, to the extent that Lagos State, for instance, is now very worried about the deep holes residents are said to be living atop in the name of boreholes dug by individuals all over the place.
And as deadly as they could be, generators are now part and parcel of every home. The noise has actually turned many to noise-makers, screaming on top of their voices while talking to anyone, even where the generators are not in use and the person just next to them.
If you think this is an exaggeration, wait until you hear some Nigerians talk in public or even 30, 000ft above sea level across foreign lands. And you just don’t want to be around when some are making phone calls.
But coming back to the issue at hand, Nigerians once described as the happiest people on earth for their ability to be suffering and smiling at the same time, take all of these unfortunate situations in their strides.
That is why even when you spend the better part of a month without electricity, the bill will surely come. And it will be as crazy as it will be outrageous, considering the electricity company’s preference for estimated billing, which on its own, is one big fraud.
As a matter of fact, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may consider beaming its searchlight on PHCN. Officials of that company, especially the ladder-carrying segment and their immediate supervisors, despite couple of name change by the company, have hardly changed their questionable mode of operation.
They encourage corruption by their many corrupt practices, which leave some consumers wondering if it really pays to pay bills. And here is just an example of how. These field staff members of PHCN, either male or female have a very cordial business relationship with defaulting consumers. The fraudulent relationship, actually, make honest consumers that want to pay their bills look stupid. In short, the field staff seems to dislike honest consumers because they are not game to giving bribes.
And so, they introduce all manner of road blocks for them and I am sure many at times, must have had no option than to join in the fraudulent acts. They prefer consumers that never pay bills but willing to bribe them. This category of consumers never ever gets their wires brought down, even as their bills keep piling.
Incidentally, when they move out of the rented houses, they leave behind bills running into hundreds of thousands of naira for the next tenant, who will most likely also find a way around the system.
Truth is, most Nigerians do not pay electricity bill because most of the officials of PHCN, especially those that move around climbing poles, and those that supervise them, are soaked deep in corruption. After several complaints about irregularities on your billing, which is not addressed, next possible thing is for a consumer to settle with the ladder-carrying boys when next they come culling.After all, why will one be outrageously estimated and billed for power that is yet to be found?
