SIR: It is difficult not to notice the polished air in Ambassador Godknows Igali, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power. Princely, urbane, debonair, cool and calculated. Of course, as a seasoned diplomat, it is not an acceptable part of his trade for one to lose his cool at any point, no matter the humongous nature of the problem at hand. He doesn’t, having seemingly learnt and perfected all the arts in that exclusive realm. It is perhaps as a result that it is difficult, almost impossible to capture the deep pain his voice betrays each time he speaks about one of the most significant and enduring problems in the power sector for a long time now – vandalism.
But on each occasions in the recent past, when he had had to speak about the issue in public, a practiced study of his countenance would always unveil this unsavoury emotion. It is almost microscopic, but there – covered with the veneer of cultured language and good mannerism.
As the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power and number two officer in the ministry, it has become his lot to introduce his principal, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo at some of the public events involving the top echelon of the ministry. While so doing, he never fails to use the opportunity to chip in some words or raise issues that reflect the impetus and drift in the power sector in recent times, one of which is the debilitating effect of vandalism.
On October 22 at Karu, a suburb of Abuja, during the commissioning of the $6.6 million World Bank assisted 2x60MVA, 132/33kV Transmission Sub-Station, while bemoaning the phenomenon, he spoke of how critical the trend has become, as perpetrators appear to have changed gear and upped the ante in their desperate bid to undermine the power reform programme of the federal government.
“How could someone go under water and blast gas pipelines channelling gas to turbines built to generate electricity? Recently these unscrupulous elements went under water and blew up these pipelines with dynamites. At six points under water. These are some of the problems we have been battling, but which we are not letting out to the public. Can these acts by be explained or justified by any stretch of argument? Are these people who perpetrate these acts not some of the worst enemies of the country? Is this not the most classic case of cutting your nose to spite your face? These people must be fished out and dealt with. They are not just ordinary people, because it takes a lot to carry out that level of activity”.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has been doing a lot to fulfil his promise of giving uninterrupted power to Nigerians. The evidence of the success is already everywhere. But there are people who are determined to ensure that these efforts do not succeed. We must stop these people because they are dangerous to the society,” he said.
The Minister on his own, expressed no less worry. In fact, he gave a more damning but graphic description of the degeneration of the ugly situation. He narrated a particular situation in which vandals cannibalised a transformer, to steal an item worth less than N10,000 and in the process plunged millions of electricity users into darkness for days. At the end of the day, by the time repairs were carried out, the cost ran into hundreds of millions of Naira. Such huge amount of damage for a paltry benefit, the minister believed was neither explicable by any stretch or argument nor acceptable by any standard.
The message was the same on Friday, November 8, at Ayede, Ibadan, Oyo State, during the commissioning of a similar project where the two most important personalities in the power ministry again launched the campaign of eradicating vandalism within the power sector.
While introducing the minister, Igali had this to say: “Let Nigerians be assured that this country has entered a time in our history that nobody can take our hands back in power supply. Nigeria will no longer be dark. Our private sector has shown its energy in other sectors. There were days when you go to the bank, queue up and collect a teller, then you go to your house and sleep and keep somebody there to find out whether it is your turn, but today you go to the bank if you have to and within few seconds you are through; today, from your mobile phone you can conclude all transactions. It was not angels from heaven that came to do it, it was Nigerians. It is the same thing with telecommunications. Today you can pick up your mobile phone and call anywhere in the world. It was not angels from heaven that did it, it was Nigerians”.
Amplifying the message, Nebo also reminded Nigerians about past doubts over the possibility of a successful privatisation of the power sector and how they have effectively been dispelled and banished to history forever by the huge success the exercise eventually became.
Now from the foregoing, it is not difficult to underscore the fact that the phenomenon of vandalism has taken a new and dangerous dimension with far-reaching undertone. If perpetrators could dive into the deep sea to blow up pipelines, which could only be achieved with rare expertise, then the story has changed.
Of course explanations for this are quite varied. Those who suspect that it is political believe that the current issues in the power sector are going to be key in determining the tenor of 2015 politics. Others who suspect economic motives, say it is the handiwork of the demons Nebo promised the nation he was going to exorcise from the sector. The argument here is how could generator importers, for instance, who had thought that the privatisation exercise was a huge joke that would collapse like a pack of cards, like similar past ambitious projects, give up so easily with the prospect of constant electricity staring them in the face and their warehouses still fully stocked? Fight they must.
But whatever is playing out, the larger picture is that Nigerians are like the grass that stand to suffer in this seeming proverbial battle of two elephants. Whichever way, they stand to gain in quantum leaps if the dream of constant power supply in the country is achieved and would be the losers; the ones wincing from the sharp pains of mosquito bites at night; the parents that would keep awake because their children could not sleep due to heat; the relations that will wail because generator fumes have wiped off their family members if it fails. That they become whistle-blowers and armour bearers against these vandals is not too much to ask of them.
This is the new message.
• Igboanugo wrote in from Abuja