By Kanayo Esinulo

Not long after the conclusion of the privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector in November 2013, Nigerians had hoped that by now, the new owners would have overcome the teething problems that everyone familiar with the sector knew were inevitable. Mildly put, we all knew that the sector was so grossly mismanaged and almost orphaned by the internal mafia that colonised the Nigeria Electricity Power Authority, NEPA, and its progeny, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN. When the federal government decided, in its wisdom, to open up the sector to market forces, in line with global trends, many thought that within six months or so, electricity supply to our homes, offices and industries would begin to improve. It was common knowledge that Nigeria’s power sector was instalmentally ruined for decades by a succession of visionless military administrations. Indeed, Nigerians had hoped that a vibrant and, for sure, more enterprising private power companies had finally arrived to rescue us from darkness and from the hands of a resilient mafia that refused to be dislodged. But what we have been witnessing all these past months is not giving us too much room for hope. Perhaps, Nigerians thought that the speed which was clearly evident during the same exercise in the telecommunications sector would be repeated. But we are now told that it is not exactly the same kind of music.

Why are the results coming in slowly? And not exactly very cheering as we had hoped or expected? In hushed tones, Nigerians are beginning to ask a number of questions: If pensions and gratuities for former PHCN staff had been paid and the noisy labour aristocrats in the power sector have now let the federal government and the Nigerian people out of their grip and stranglehold, new buyers have since taken positions and possessions, the transfer of ownership effected, and the government and its agencies have done all that needed to be done, why are we not feeling the impact of the change of guards, however tangential – as Nigerians clearly witnessed when they were similarly rescued from the hands of yet another failed and unproductive public utility called the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NITEL?

The other questions that Nigerians are asking are: Are the power companies that bought and now own the dismantled PHCN as technically competent and professionally grounded in the sector as they claimed in their applications forms, or are some of them taking the federal government and the people of Nigeria for a ride? When should Nigerians begin to witness significant changes and improvements in power supply? They seem to be getting increasingly bored by all these self-serving rhetoric of officialdom and ever-shifting timelines? One thing is, however, clear: the new buyers are not impressing Nigerians and are frustrating all efforts put into the whole exercise by the federal government, its agencies and labour. Nigerians may be feeling this way because the buyers do not seem to be applying the same speed that Emis International, Econet, MTN, Multilinks, Globacom, when they got their licences. The gencos and discos, as Nigerians now identify them as, do not seem to appreciate that the role they have accepted to play in Nigeria’s economy is crucial to national development and the expansion of the other critical sectors. If the economy grew by about seven per cent while powered on generators, a steady supply of electricity would generate the kind of growth that puts us there – if you see what I mean.

Trust Nigerians, they are already bandying so many reasons for the slow pace of reforms or transformation in the power sector. One is that the same old, analogue-compliant, grossly inefficient, corruption-ridden and ladder-carrying ‘NEPA staff’ are still the ones calling the shots and in-charge of running the affairs of the new companies that bought the strategic public utility. It is this claim or assumption that is generating the new apocryphal slogan, ‘Privatised In Name, same NEPA, same PHCN’, which I borrowed as the title of this piece. The position of this school is simply that nothing much has changed or is likely to change unless the new power companies do the following: appreciate that Nigerians are growing impatient with their unacceptable speed in providing electricity for the people, fish out those elements still within the system that ruined NEPA/PHCN and are still doing more harm than good, begin the process of re-training retained staff, if they have not started that yet, and totally re-orientate the mindset of their staff that interact with members of the public as a part of their image-reconstruction effort. Even today, pupils deride NEPA and its staff when, for example, they shout ‘Leper’ each time the company manages to restore supply.

Besides the little hope that the public harbour for the new gencos and discos there is also a growing sense of disappointment in the leadership of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, which, in the view of many, is rather too soft and patronising to the new companies. Many months after NERC’s chief servant, Dr. Sam Amadi, repeatedly promised us pre-paid meters, the story is still the same. Even at locations where these meters are available, the same level of corruption that earned notoriety for NEPA is still visible. The ‘scarcity’ of these meters is sometimes deliberate and carefully planned by internal saboteurs within the system. I am sure that Dr. Amadi can devise better ways of letting these meters get to end users without the hassle and the empty promises that we have been fed with all these difficult months. Amadi should deploy drive in his leadership drive. The Ministry of Power and the Presidential Task Force on Power under the care of Prof. Chinedu Nebo and Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack have done some good job. To privatise a company like NEPA/PHCN under the circumstance that they did was quite a feat, but they must drive this process to a logical point where the benefits begin to register in Nigerian homes, offices and industries. Their efforts and sacrifices would have been wasted if the new power companies continue to play havoc with our dreams.

Post-Script
When Osita Ben Chidoka, the erstwhile Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps, became a Cabinet Minister, I felt that President Goodluck Jonathan did not quite get it right this time. What were Chidoka’s specific achievements at his last beat? The man left FRSC worse than he met it. The core duties of the Road Safety officials shifted from advising, cautioning and educating the motoring public to ‘Can I see your documents?’ While IGP Mohammed Abubakar (now retired) was dismantling police-checkpoints across the country, Chidoka was replacing them with his men who now ask for all kinds of documents from motorists. That is why Chidoka’s Road Safety officials no longer ask us for fire extinguishers, spare tyre and caution signs; only documents. That was not the FRSC that General Tony Hannaniya headed when it was nationalised after its huge success in Oyo State under Governor Bola Ige. Prof. Wole Soyinka nursed it to national recognition and the Shagari government bought into the idea. The Guardian newspaper gave it full editorial backing. I was with The Guardian at the time. Chidoka made driver’s licence costly and hard to obtain. New plate numbers became a source of extortion and enrichment for those who succumbed to his men’s intimidation, harassment, blackmail and extortionist style. True, the young man was a disaster at place. And what was the reward for this disastrous outing? A promotion to the position of a cabinet minister. Honestly, I think that was a huge mistake. One day, Nigerians will know who owns Black Tye Limited and its relationship with FRSC – a story for another day.
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