Do you remember when the big debate in Nigeria was whether to privatize NEPA or PHCN or not? We were repeatedly told that by privatizing the electricity supply system, Nigerians would be guaranteed steady electricity supply. Like most debates in Nigeria, the decision had already been taken, before the debate was begun. The people that would own the shared-out PHCN were already in place and known to the decision makers. The debate was a fluke. It was meant to give the impression that we were following a democratic process.
So, how has it panned out? Please, where is the steady electricity? All we have had since is steady reasons to pay more and more money for service not delivered.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has recently introduced a strange new idea to suck more money out of citizens who have already been sucked almost dead by the biting economic situation in the country. We are told that electricity customers under a newly manufactured “Band A” are to “enjoy” 20 – 24 hours of electricity daily. There is also a Band B, C, D, down to Band E who will be supplied with a minimum of 4-8 hours daily. I thought that in this day and age, electric power ought to be available to every citizen 24 hours a day no matter where he lives. Available electricity should never be described as “enjoyment”. Never!
This new game plan is to justify increasing electricity tariff by close to 300% to some citizens. Let the truth be told. The scheme is to get more money from those Nigerians who have been paying their bills. Where they will find the money does not matter. In other words, punish the law-abiding citizens and make them pay for the electricity used by other citizens who do not pay their bills.
It is no longer news that a majority of government agencies including Aso Rock, the Federal Secretariat and the Security agencies routinely do not pay their electricity bills. The DISCOs appear to be too scared to disconnect them, so they create this new scheme that has made electricity practically unaffordable to most Nigerians who pay their bills.
Please, where else in the world, will a service provider have the temerity to overnight increase the cost of his service by 300%? From where will his customers get the money to pay? Why are we so backward?
In a world of mathematics, quantum physics, empiricism, driver-less cars and Artificial Intelligence, we still live on conjecture. At a time, when much of the world can forecast hurricanes or tornadoes a week ahead or tell us precisely when it will rain in any village on earth, we still plan on conjecture and imagination.
We fear to face the fact that much of our future is not dangling in the air like the cowries tossed by a witch doctor but is dependent on accurate planning. We do not want to deal with facts because that means taking responsibility. So, we embrace conjecture and blame the devil or even God for our endless disasters.
I have written before that our mathematics problem is at the core of our many difficulties. Mathematics means facts. It means transparency, accountability, order, planning and the taking of responsibilities. In mathematics, two plus two will always be four. It can never be five or three and half.
Pray, how can our ‘democratic’ government explain paying a man in its employ, with a wife and four children, the incredible salary of thirty thousand naira a month and expect the man to pay for food, housing, transportation, NEPA, clothes, school fees, medicine and all the many expectations of the extended family and not be a thief? Thirty thousand Naira a month is really one thousand Naira a day, less than the cost of one decent loaf of bread!
Some brilliant persons in government will tell you: “the man will survive… he will find a way”. Tell me, what way? What kind of mathematical formula will the man apply to make one thousand Naira a day take care of his family?
I am really tired. Everywhere in Nigeria, the more you look, the less you see.
See you next week.
- Okoroji is chairman of COSON