I have nothing against the good Senior Advocate of Nigeria who was my model governor in his heydays. I like his suits, swag and smile. But a picture that made the round the other day showing Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing sprawled and snoozing away got me thinking: Maybe it is time to unbundle the ministy so that we can have light. And the fact that he snored away on that flight shows he is working real hard only that it is not manifesting. He needs to be saved. And who is better to replace him than President Muhammadu Buhari himself who is already doing a good job in the petroleum sector. Please, the president should add power to his ministerial portfolios as soon as he gets back from fixing his ear because, right now, we all now have ear infection due to the generators noise. Unless you live in the big neighbourhoods where they have soundproof gens, we who are consigned to the backyards have to endure all sorts of sounds. Some of the gens have the grunting of pigs; others the rattling of machines guns; and one particular neighbour has a generator that simply takes the sleep away. And when you dare ignore him and find some sleep, you dream of armoured tanks fighting with jet bombers. I was curious and visited him to find out that he has actually manufactured the monstrous contraption. He converted a grinding engine and some spare parts he got from his old Volkswagen and voila, he became an inventor. Many other Nigerians are finding various ways to address the power problem. From cut-outs to using rechargeable lantern to some other power saving devices, everyone has reached the conclusion that darkness is our portion. I find this surrendering sad. While having light seems to be the norm elsewhere, over here, you are actually surprised there is light. The usual question is “do you have light?” When the answer is “yes”, you are truly baffled. A “no” is a more appropriate reply. And before you start accusing the current All Progressive Congress (APC) led government, my question is what has successive governments done about this? What did they do or didn’t do all these years that has led us to this sordid place? I know we didn’t start off like this because growing up in Wukari, there was light everywhere including street lights on tall beautiful poles. How did we get here? I’m sure there was a time we had all the megawatts we needed. What is more, it seems the situation is not improving at all like a terminal illness. When at the start of this government light improved, it was attributed to the body language of the man in power. It went as high as 5000 megawatts. Today, it has whittled to a miserable 1,500mw. When I visited a certain politician at the time, he was thrilled and declared the “change” has begun. He said “Emma. I told you that this man would change things. See how light has improved without him even moving a muscle. Just his body language only and NEPA people are sitting up!” So whatever happened to the body language? Is it that they have learnt not to fear the president again? When I asked my good friend Hajia Sani- a deft apologist of the regime- she said I should blame it on the Niger Delta Avengers. That was the same view held by my big brother of NCC, Yakubu Musa. According to them there is really nothing anyone can do about the activities of the avengers as they go about blowing up pipelines. Hajia actually now find ingenious ways to have energy including getting battery chargers. Like most Nigerians, she endures “lightlessness” in silence, full of hope that the tide would start to change in July. Hope! But then that is all that is left to do: To hope and to wonder. You keep wondering what the problem is like villagers finding solutions to an inexplicable plague. Some opine we should blame generator merchants. Those who hold this view believe that the business men are the biggest beneficiaries of the darkness. The theory is a simple one: with more darkness, citizens would patronise the cartel wares. And that is what’s happening. Following on the heels of the carpet baggers are the generator mechanics. And that is where Absalom comes in. The youngster fixes my gen each week with a permanent smile on his face as if he revelling in my misery. He told me he suspects that many of the generators are designed to pack up so that they would be in business. What I think he is not telling me is that the mechanics too don’t fix them well so that you continue to depend on them. Vicious cycle. Obviously we are now caught as hostages in the web of a frustrating cabal. But as all of that is going on, many countries around us are enjoying light. Ghana has since become a legend of sorts in this area but the one that baffled me was Zimbabwe! Yes, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe! They have light too. Is this not the same Zimbabwe we like to make fun of and regale ourselves with how they buy bread with dollars? Is this not the country where their octogenarian leader, Mugabe spews out all kinds of senile quotes (even though I don’t believe he says all those things)? Yet they have light. South Africa with 60 million population has 40,000mw. Egypt with about 90 million people has 24,000 mw. Algeria nko? 11,000mw with a population of about 40,000 million. I was also told that smaller countries around us like Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Gambia and Niger all have light. So what is the problem? Or rather who is the problem. I used to say, well, they are small countries. How much light do they consume? But I get reminded that China, India and the USA with their outstanding populations, have light.
So, I have outlined some solutions. First, the federal government ought to investigate the activities of the generator cabal. Are they really frustrating the power sector? How are they doing it? Who the big merchants by the way? To me they are worse than the sponsors of Boko Haram. They must be drilled so that we can make sense out of their activities. We can’t just allow them like termites to keep eating away while we wallow in darkness. Why should Nigeria be the major market for generators? I stayed in a particular hotel in Ghana and they had no generators.
My next suggestion is: No government office should be allowed to have a generator starting with the Villa. Government Houses across the nation too should be directed not to use generators. Consequently, the National Assembly should run strictly on NEPA (or its other names) light. Perhaps when the big men of Nigeria start sweating in their agbada, they may see the need to leave everything else and deal with the problem.
Thirdly, we must find all sorts of solutions to this scandal. We should be exploring wind, solar and gas in dealing with the problem. What is the point in having agencies like the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) if they can’t tap into solar energy? Okay, I learnt they now have 7.5 mw worth of light to distribute. So what are they waiting for? We even have an Atomic Energy agency somewhere. Are they researching to get a nuclear bomb or what? Shouldn’t they be part of the effort to end our shame?
Finally, what is still keeping the Federal Government from commissioning the Kashimbilla Dam in Taraba State? With about 40mw to add to whatever is there, that is quite some boost. The dam, from my layman’s perspective, is now a completed job. And even if it is not completed, why can’t government seriously finish it? I don’t even want to comment on the Mambilla power project with its potentials to generate close to 4000mw. Issues surrounding that particular project seem shrouded in mystery. Taraba state’s helmsman, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku, who was once a Minister of Power, did something rather unusual recently.  Rather than sit and bemoan the fate of the nation in this area, he swung into action and revived an old dam that generated some megawatts at Kakara. With that, he was able to inject life into the near dead world famous Highland Tea industry there with the populace now gainfully employed. The Plateau state government should take a cue and revive its old power plant that used to be very effective. In the end, everyone has to join in bringing back light. As citizens we may have to be honest in paying the tariffs. But then we can’t be paying for darkness. Can we?

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