Generator economy

Editorial

Nigeria’s descent to the global poverty capital is substantially due to its poor infrastructure generally. However, the effect of lack of sustainable electricity supply in a 21st century economy is so glaring as businesses and households suffer tremendously under the yoke of darkness.

The report that Nigerian businesses and households spend a whopping $22 billion (about N9.053trillion) annually to fuel their generators should not surprise anyone. The amount does not include the other alternative power sources like solar, inverters and other modern ways of generating electricity.

Sadly, however, in a country that politicians are never held accountable for not keeping their campaign promises, the people are still told by politicians during election campaigns that their mission, if elected, is to provide electricity and other infrastructure. This is almost like a yearly sing-song.

The saddest part of this huge expenses on private provision of electricity by individuals, governments and businesses is that the money is paid to other economies as Nigeria exports its crude oil and imports all its premium motor spirit, diesel and all other by-products in the production chain. So, invariably, the bulk of the money goes to fuel other economies.

The Investment Climate and Exceptions to National Investment launched by the Energy Commission of Nigeria made this damning situation known in Abuja, last week. What was not included in the report is that many companies have either closed down or moved to other countries with better infrastructure, like Ghana, that celebrated a 10-year uninterrupted electricity supply a few years back. Also, Twitter recently announced its intention to open its African office in Ghana despite the fact that Nigeria is its prime clientele base on the continent.

The calculated amount spent fuelling the generators did not of course take into account the prices of generators, spare parts and other needed valuables. In a country without value for data and statistics, that amount might be very far from the reality because not every nook and cranny might have been captured. Again, there was no calculation of the impact of the use of generators on the environment and health of citizens generally.

Nigeria today stands as one of the countries with the worst cases of air and noise pollution; a huge percentage coming from generators and cars that are neither well maintained nor supposed to be on the roads due to their age. Nigeria is almost a country with zero plans for the transportation of its millions of commuters and goods. What then happens is that operators pass on the cost of fuelling to the consumers in what is a vicious cycle.

While we calculate the amount spent on petrol and diesel, we must not ignore the fact that many Nigerians do not even have access to electricity, neither can they afford to power any household or official items. These groups of Nigerians almost live in pre-colonial times. What this means is the redundancy we observe in industrial and even small scale businesses, the increase in unemployment statistics and the rise in crime and criminality.

Insecurity is often largely a result of high rate of unemployment.  Successive governments in Nigeria have failed to treat with the seriousness it deserves the lack of sustainable electricity in Nigeria and it is so sad that even after the supposed privatization of the power sector, not much has changed. Consumers still pay for darkness, as not much has been done in streamlining generation, transmission and distribution. It seems the investors did not go through the tedious task of due process to determine their capacity to deliver.

We are truly concerned that Nigerians with all the multiple trillions spent on fuel and generator purchases and maintenance are slowly headed into the abyss of poverty and redundancy and chaos in a world ruled by technology and ideas.

It would be futile for us to begin to catalogue the effects of living in a 21st century with a first century mentality. Most Nigerians believe that a stable electricity supply is one basic need that can help the ailing economy spring back to productivity. We believe so too.