Agenda Papers Editorial:Guarding against making National Grid Collapse the new cash cow in place of oil subsidy scam by greedy Nigerians—By Austine Uche-Ejeke

If there is anything that Nigerians should not be played with now it is the issue of electricity supply.

Why you may ask and the reasons are not far fetched. The number one cardinal reason is that Nigerians need electricity now more than ever before to sustain their already broken and battered life.

This is linked to the season of the year in sub Sahara Africa in which the weather is terribly hot and discomforting. As such Nigerians will wake up as early as 5am to troop out in search of their proverbial daily bread under excruciating scorching hot sun and weather conditions . On returning home they expect to see power supply to make life easier for them by way of cooling down and provision of illumination to do one or two things before going to bed and to also sleep very well throughout the night with the aid of fans and air conditioners powered by electricity.

Secondly they need the electricity for their refrigerators to cool and preserve their food and prevent them from spoiling or avoid recooking them all the time. Women and wives in this category need the electricity more than any other person as they bear the brunt of going to the market, cooking and ensuring that they manage the food in the house but if they don’t have adequate supply of electricity your guess is as good as mine. Imagine spending so much in these hard times to prepare stew or soup only for it to get spoiled due to non provision of electricity.

Most importantly a greater majority of Nigerians who are not in the employment of either public or private sector need this electricity for their arts and crafts. By this we mean the artisans on the streets doing barbing, hair dressing, operating grinding machines, tailors, fashion designers etc. You can imagine when they don’t have electricity to carry out their daily activities and the effects it will have on them.

Previously Nigerians found solace in using alternative sources of energy and electricity. This is in the form of powering their generators with fuel. At that time petrol was sold for N87 per litre or at worst N195 per litre before the coming into power of this present regime. Today as we speak fuel is sold above N1000 per litre and most of them cannot afford it or cannot break even if they buy fuel at that amount to do their business. As such most businesses are dying on a daily basis as a result of lack or inadequate supply of electricity.

It is on the basis of this that it bleeds our heart each time the story of national grid collapse is reported because we know the impact it will have on Nigerians.

As at the last count the collapse has happened twelve times in the 12th month of the year of this 2024 alone.

With this frequent collapse of the national grid some pundits have gone to investigate and it is becoming very obvious that the collapse may not just be ordinary but could be the handiwork of wicked and greedy Nigerians who are profiting on the grid collapse.

This position is accentuated by the revelation of the yet to be authenticated report that the cost of each revival of the national grid collapse is put at $25 million dollars. Mathematicians have also done their calculations of multiplying $25 million by 12 and the amount they got is staggering. Whether this is true or not one thing is certain and that is the submission that some Nigerians could have found another means or loophole of reaping the country off by ensuring grid collapse every now and then.

It is even further stretched that since the door of payment of subsidy on fuel is gone they have resorted to tampering with the grid for them to have a slice of the country’s money. This is quite unfortunate and disheartening to say the least.

It is on this note that we condemn in strong terms the recent outburst of president Tinubu when he said that there is no magical solution to steady power supply in Nigeria. Our anger and condemnation is predicated on the fact that this same Tinubu last year while campaigning told the world in a viral video that if he cannot solve the country’s electricity problem Nigerians should not cast their vote for him for a second term.

Closely related to this was the careless statement of former Lagos state governor Raji Fashola who said that any serious government should be able to solve electricity problems six months on the assumption of office. A few months later after the boasting Fashola was made Minister of power and for four years as a power minister electricity problems in Nigeria did not improve rather it got worse under his watch.

In conclusion we are advocating that no matter the madness going on in the government today the issue of electricity should not be added to it. A country where dozens are dying of hunger, deprivations, depression, frustration as a result of this very regime policies, actions and inactions the least they can expect is a reasonable number of hours of electricity supply every day. This will make life a little bit easier for them. To us this is not asking for too much.

The security agencies should put their noses on the ground to investigate and find out if it is actually true that some Nigerians profit from the frequent grid collapse. If it is so they should not hesitate to name and shame them publicly to serve as a deterrent to others.

Also the federal government should use this opportunity to do a holistic overhaul if the entire power sector with a view to addressing its teething problems. They should endeavour to replace obsolete machines, gadgets, cables, installations etc of which most them are over sixty years. The government should put more energy and focus on this very important sector as non provision of electricity to the greater number of the population is a security risk which if not well managed can lead t to an uprising in the country.

Nigerians have suffered enough and all they need now is succour and not punishment of darkness supply instead of constant electricity occasioned by both artificial and real national grid collapse.

***Austine Uche-Ejeke, a public affairs analyst and publisher of Agenda Papers wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com