By Tunji Adegboyega
Joe Ajaero, President-General of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), the junior workers in the power sector, and his senior staff counterpart, Chris Okonkwo of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians on the need for a total overhaul of the sector. Although they spoke on the same day, but at different fora, the conclusion is the same: the power sector is not working; it needs to be rejigged. While Ajaero spoke at the 6th quadrennial/11th national delegates’ conference of the union in Lagos, Okonkwo bared his mind to journalists later at a press conference, also in Lagos.
That the two labour leaders are on the same page concerning the poor performance in the power sector is good news because, as active participants in the sector, they are in a position to know that there is still a long way to go to achieve stable power supply. Ajaero urged the Federal Government to declare an emergency in the sector because Nigerians are totally dissatisfied with the situation as it is. The icing on the cake is his statement that those in charge of the sector have no blueprint on how to move it forward. This is clear to us after six years of its privatisation.
“We cannot continue to lament. Let the ministers of power and others tell Nigerians the situation in the power sector. Let them tell us that in the next six months, this is what we should expect and in the next one year, this is what will happen. Let them tell us the short, medium and long term plans for the power sector and how they want to achieve them. If they do not have, we think there is need to declare an emergency in the power sector. There is need for us to sit down to discuss the way forward. All stakeholders should join hands to rescue the sector from collapse. Nobody is happy with what is happening in the sector. Nigerians are not happy,” Ajaero said. To this, Okonkwo added the need for a review of the privatisation of the power sector, as some of the companies which came into existence through it have failed to live up to expectation. This, really, is my area of concern.
I must confess that the views of these two labour leaders resonate more with me, and I guess with millions of Nigerians, even though the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. James Momoh, believes that once a reasonable measure of success is achieved on prepaid metering, there would be improved power supply. “The target is that by the time we have improved meter within two years, that will improve the quality of service all over the country”, Prof Momoh told Channels Television in September.
But the truth is that the DisCos never wanted prepaid meters and they did everything to frustrate its easy acquisition. Indeed, contrary to Prof Momoh’s optimism, we would never have stable power supply in our lifetime unless there is attitudinal change on the part of the major players in the industry, particularly the electricity distribution companies (DisCos). Most of the DisCos’ workers need to be purged of the NEPA and PHCN gene in them. And this can only come about if they are whipped into line by the regulatory authority, in this instance, NERC itself.
I will elucidate, using my experience and the experience of my community that has been disconnected from the transformer by Ikeja Electric since June 30, for no just cause, as case study. I must confess though that NERC is trying, at least through NERC Forum, but the time it takes, for instance, for petitions to be heard is too long, sometimes four months or more. I am talking from experience. Four months is too long for people to be denied electricity over flimsy excuses, not to talk of one year, or even more in some cases. Four months is too long in a country with the kind of I-don’t-care Discos that we have.
Is Ikeja Electric saying everyone in Solabomi Williams Crescent, parts of Ajiboye Street, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and other affected areas in Agege on that transformer is a debtor? If no, why not sift the wheat from the chaff and serve light and darkness accordingly? Instead, at least two of the company’s workers told aggrieved protesters of the communities who took their grievance to their Agege office that their company could afford to do without the revenue from that transformer and they have faithfully kept to that promise since June 30. This was despite the fact that they conscripted the customers in the communities as debt collectors, gave them targets to meet to have the transformer energised again. Twice these people met the targets and twice did Ikeja Electric officials who gave them the assignment keep increasing the target after the people had struggled to persuade some debtors to pay. The point is, when a struggling DisCo says it does not need revenue from some customers, it tells you the corporate mindset of such organisation. And how does having prepaid meters solve that corporate cancer? How many other areas is that DisCo treating the same way? Or how many other DisCos engage in similar practice? As I said earlier, not even the stinking rich multinationals despise small beginnings.
With this type of business model, it is not difficult to explain why some of these DisCos are struggling and gasping for breath in a sector that naturally should be a money spinner. Unfortunately, many of them had banked on recovering the huge ‘debts’ (some doubtful and dubious) that they inherited. Unfortunately, too, many Nigerians have become more aware of their rights under the new regime and are questioning the basis for some of these debts. Without doubt, there are people who do not like to pay for goods or services they enjoy. But, the DisCos ought to have separate such persons from those who are not debtors and sew befitting caps for all, according to their categories. One cap for all is a misnomer.
These injustices are part of the reasons some aggrieved electricity consumers beat up some DisCo officials. For the same reason, some of their officials had been forced to jump down from the electricity poles after the ladders they used to climb were removed by aggrieved electricity consumers. A few had died in the process. I do not subscribe to such jungle justice, though. At any rate, it would be most unfair to vent one’s anger on hapless junior electricity workers who are only carrying out orders while the bosses who give the inhuman orders from the cocoon of their air conditioned offices do not suffer any harm. Ajaero said that much at the delegates’ conference: “The level at which our members are being assaulted, harassed and beaten up are increasing. Nigerians are venting their frustration on the power situation on our members.”
It is instructive that, in spite of the extreme provocation of being cut off the grid for months, the issue has been well managed by the communities’ representatives so far. So, there has not been any major incident of Ikeja Electric officials being assaulted. This is why it would be interesting to hear what Ikeja Electric would say these communities have done to deserve being cut off the national grid for over six months when we both appear, our hands in our back, before the requisite panel to tell it all; a thing which brings my own plight with the DisCo to over a year since I used power supply from them. They would have to tell thepanel whether they expected people who never had light for over six months, and someone who never used power supply from the public power supply system for over a year to come to their office to hug them and give them a long, passionate kiss for a job well done.
Indeed, when we see people behaving the way some of these DisCo officials behave, we would not need to look too far to see why God decided to be in charge of the air that we breathe. You can imagine what such little-minded people would do when they have the opportunity to produce air! With regard to the DisCos, even as things stand, all they do is just to distribute the power that some other organisations have generated. Yet, they do not have the capacity to absorb all that is generated. Yet, some of their officials say they do not need money from some transformers I doubt if the company even knows the number of its transformers because if it does, someone should be asking questions as to why transformer X, Y, Z is not bringing revenue for six months. Who knows how many other Ikeja Electric and other DisCos’ customers are suffering in silence? It would seem to me that all the company is doing now is to wear out the patience of the communities that want to prove they know their rights under the extant laws, and make them come to the company penitent, like the biblical prodigal son. That is the only reason Ikeja Electric could have been ignoring all those who had attempted to intervene in the matter.
These included the police at Agege who, out of security concerns invited the company’s officials for a parley. The local government chairman of the affected communities also tried to have an audience with them; they ignored him, even as they snubbed another Lagos State agency which tried to intervene, after reading of the plight of the people in the paper a few months ago.
Yet, they are assuming the power of life and death over people who should be their customers. I said it earlier, and I dare repeat it; that Ikeja Electric and any other DisCo or business that cares less about its public image, or operates this kind of business model can only continue to struggle, wobble and fumble to its extinction. Quote me.
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