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Sunday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
THE
Big Read SUNDAY SPECIAL INVESTIGATION March 30, 2014
Almost six months after the government handed over power generation and distribution to private companies in the hope of improved services, it has remained same old litany of woes, as Nigerians still rely on generators to supply power. Head, Special Investigations, Tayo Adelaja, unravels the world of the new energy providers -the GENCOs and DISCOs -and provides their scorecards.
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Electricity: Still in the dark hour
he entire tenants were outside lying on their mats and clothes which were spread on the pavement across the front of the house. In an angry and frustrated tone, Mama Bobo as she was called (real names Mrs Okafor Gloria) who spoke with Sunday Mirror about the state of power supply in her area declared, “Imagine ooo, na so we dey take breeze ooo, since we don no say we no go get light. How many hours we they get light for one month? Even sef since the beginning of this year, how many hours we don enjoy light wey dem dey bring plenty bill? Our transformer don spoil since second week for January, na contribution we still dey do for our area, still yet them they carry big bill come give us. Yeye people!” Mama Bobo lives in Olodi-Apapa, Ajegunle, Lagos. She was angry because she had not enjoyed electricity since the beginning of the year owing to epileptic supply. Sunday John also who lives in Wilmer, Ajegunle, Lagos in a separate chat said, “Initially it is NEPA - Never Ex-
pect Power Always. Suddenly, the name changed to PHCN, meaning Problem Has Changed Name. From that name, we can easily translate it to Please Hold Candle Now. It is just change of nomenclature, but the situation does not actually change as the billing became outrageous and exorbitant. “Today, we don’t even know what to call them, because they are just like chameleon changing name without changing services despite the noise of privatisation by the government.” A former senior staff of the National Electric Power Authority who left the service a few years ago, Babalola Kehinde, stated that the problem was not that of NEPA/ PHCN. “You have to look at the root of the problem. I want to emphatically say that the problem actually started during the Shagari regime when they directed that the money generated by the corporation should be remitted to CBN. Then, as I can vividly recollect, NEPA was buoyant. It
‘PHCN PRIVATISATION WILL EARN FG $2BN ’ 4
was NEPA money that the government of the day used in prosecuting the 1983 election. You may not know but as at then, power supply was not as bad in the country as it became in later years. We were even supplying power to neighbouring countries. One of the popular politicians was asked to supply transformer; what did he supply as at then? Of course, substandard materials and no one queried him nor was he prosecuted,” Kehinde recalled. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), formerly the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was the organisation in charge of the use of electricity in the country. The history of the nation’s electricity development can be traced back to the end of the 19th century, when the first generating power plant was installed in the city of Lagos in 1898. From then until 1950, the pattern of energy development was in the form of individual electricity undertaking scattered all over the towns. Some of the few CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
MINISTER BLAMES POOR POWER SUPPLY ON INADEQUATE GAS
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