By Dr. Prince Charles Dickson
SIR, sometime last week, the screaming headline, “How we lost N1.2tr in five years, by GenCos” graced a national daily. The story in full, stated that Nigeria’s power generation companies (GenCos) in the past five years lost a whopping N1.2 trillion to poor capacity utilisation and the country’s inability to transport over 21,184.62 megawatts of electricity to end users.
With a peak suppressed load of 25,790MW on the grid, while peak generation hovers around 5,375MW (indicating that about 21 per cent of the suppressed grid load is met), Nigeria’s power generation capacity might substantially remain stranded in the face of load rejection by electricity distribution companies (DisCos) due to infrastructure and collection problems.
The story above shared space with another news item, “Furore as TI indicts Buhari for worsening corruption”.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) rose in defence of the Buhari-led government, condemning the Transparency International (TI) report, which claimed Nigeria has become more corrupt.
The yearly Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by TI released in Berlin ranked Nigeria 146th of the 180 countries. The country was 144th in 2018, indicating a two-point plunge.
President Buhari had made fighting corruption a focus of his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, with anti-graft agencies such as the EFCC proclaiming daily feats in reining in the monster. He is also currently recognised by the African Union (AU) as the continent’s anti-corruption champion.
I believe that as a people, we have an adverse governance structure which in itself promotes corruption. Corruption has and will continue to thrive because we have power concentrated in the hands of few people who are not practically accountable to the people.
Despite the entire baby crawling efforts at posturing, corruption has continued to be further enshrined into the system because of an illiterate, apathetic and ignorant populace, without adequate public discernment of political choices.
So we lost N1.2trn in stranded electricity. Imagine the call-up capital of a bank is N25billion. How many N25billion make up N1.2trn? is there any bank in Nigeria that has up to a trillion?
From the gateman at the state secretariat to the corporal at the police desk, everyone wants something. Everyone is ‘prayerfully’ waiting for that promotion that will take one to the next level where one can demonstrate that inherent skill at greasing and lining our pockets. Those currently stealing ARE a miserly .001% of those that are waiting for their turn to steal!
Admission is sold, employment is sold, and political office sold, so naturally we are at the receiving end, the system pays for it. What’s in it for me is a guiding philosophy.
Does is mean that Nigeria is the most corrupt nation? No! Does it mean that there are no honest Nigerians? No too. There are many but many of them never or hardly get the opportunity or are swallowed. Sadly I have not exactly said anything new, but I am alluding to the truth that really we are in a soup pot where everything (and nothing) will change.
Corruption abounds everywhere; but whither what manner of corruption is the Nigerian type? Our corruption is regaled in sumptuous ethnicity, served with iced cubes in religious sentiments; the corruption war is fought along lines of division with certain groups entitled to their corruption.
Our corruption is such that there is a conspiracy of the elite, silence of a critical mass, and unless there is class suicide by the elite, or the masses find the right answers having asked the right questions, we still will be fighting shadows.
- Dr. Prince Charles Dickson, pcdbooks@gmail.com
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