Confronting the power challenge

By Sunny Ikhioya

POWER, in whatever form is what everyone craves for. It grants you freedom and independence. It also confers privileges and respect. It gives you boldness to confront issues of the world. It is a symbol of strength and authority. It is a mark of ascendancy. When you control power, you are no longer at the lower level, you are high up there. That is why people will do anything to attain power.

It is not a piece of cake, you have to work for it. So many great men and nations have gone down trying to get power, late Chief MKO Abiola left all of his billions in quest of power and got consumed in the process, that is the mystery of power. It is irresistible, society cannot live without it because it creates room for competition, you have to be better in the game to get it.

Also, competition creates room for improvement  and so, most developments in today’s world arose because of the crave of man to be better. When you are better, it confers on you an advantage and therefore gives you power. Events in the cyber space of the super powers attest to this. Everyone is taking up the challenge, no serious nation can be left out. The only way you can get power is to confront it, face it and go for it. If you are intimidated by it, you lose it and remain at the bottom level of the ladder. If you do not confront and take control of power, you lose influence and authority.

Somebody defined power as “A person or thing that possesses or exercises authority or influence”. But, there are different forms of power; political, economic, social, religious and others. Each of these exert influence.

My focus today is the power of electricity, the one that has crippled production and other businesses in this country for so long, the one that is mechanical energy as distinguished from hard labour, the one that runs our industries, infrastructure, homes, offices and other businesses. The one, without which, researchers cannot work, the one that brings civilisation to societies, the one that is, “energy, force or momentum”, that propels a nation, the one, that we in this country have collectively given to a cartel called DISCOS, GENCOS and TRANSMISSION  companies. Unless we confront these forces, our development will remain stunted.

It is an irony that as important as electricity power is to our survival as a nation, we have continued to take it for granted. There is apathy and ‘unseriosness’ on the part of both government and the governed, nobody cares. So much efforts were put in to get the power companies privatised. It is over four years now and the situation has worsened.

These power companies have proven themselves to be far worse than the infamous PHCN. They give bills without supplying electricity, because they know they cannot justify it, they claim they are estimates. When electricity is available it operates in an epileptic manner, in some areas, it is only available when bills are about to be  distributed. And like the power that they are,  the light comes and goes at their whim with the resultant damage to consumers’ electrical appliances and machines.Becuase of who they are,nobody holds them liable, they are more powerful than the government.

The only way to have power is to confront it squarely. The minister of power ex-governor Babatunde Fashola recently gave the Power companies an ultimatum to start fulfilling the purpose for which they were set up or quit, enough of the whining. This should be the starting point. The people must take it up from here. There must be regulatory standards for these companies and government regulatory agencies must properly monitor and ensure compliance at all times, not the slap in the wrist by which they have operated in the past.

We always compare the power sector to the communications sector, the difference is that the communications companies put in a lot of investments into the sector, with up to date technologies. For the power companies, they want the federal government to do things for them. A federal government that is yet to find direction, leading a group of greedy cartels, in the name of business, the result is failure. With the size of the Nigerian population, the returns on investment will be huge for any investor and it is not expected that they should begin to make profit immediately. They must be ready to put in money into the sector so that consumers can have value for their money.

Our power companies are greedy, they have not put in the needed investments like our GSM companies but they want same result. At every opportunity, they use the blackmail tactic to ensure that they get something from the government. It is clear that those running our power companies have proven themselves not to be true professionals, if they are, the results would have been evident by now.

The only way to get power is to confront it. Consumers must be encouraged by government to seek compensation for any breach of the rules or damage to equipments, arbitrary bills must stop and the people have the right to be informed on the state of power at all times so they can plan for it. The only way to get power is to confront it, it must become a priority for everyone of us to demand for the stability of our power sector.

A few individuals are feeding fat on our common patrimony, no excuses must be allowed. These assets given to them at highly discounted rates belong to us. They can only show gratitude by giving us good services not outrageous bills. If not for power, our telephone bills would have been much lower. The challenge of power must be confronted  and we must do it in line with modern trends, so that we do not end up like our railways, refineries and steel companies that are using the 19 th century technologies for  21st century demands.

We must think in line with global standards. The technology of power has become very advanced. I wonder if our representatives are attending fairs, exhibitions and seminars on current power trends. We have seen from other lands power generation from: waste, solar, water, wind, diesel turbines, nuclear and others. We must adopt the technology that most suit our needs. Our power management must be broken into manageable units; states, individuals and groups with capabilities to provide power should be given permission to do so.  Enough of the exploitation and manipulation.

*Mr. Ikhioya, http://ift.tt/2aHoDkF
Twitter: @sunnyIkhioya

 

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