Still On Bayo Adelabu As Power Minister…

BY ADENIYI KAZEEM

Much has been said about Adebayo Adelabu as Nigeria’s Minister of Power. However, not a few are aware that his approach is different from that of his predecessors. The real issue had just been tackled by the Minister: Pricing. If the pricing issue was not tackled, we would not have a headway. 

Hitherto, the DISCOs were afraid to evacuate available energy for delivery because they believed they would not have enough money to pay for the evacuation as customers would not pay their bills in full.

Meanwhile, the DISCOs were required to pay for energy beforehand. This was responsible for the incessant blackout as they would rather not pay for something they were not sure of getting back the full cost.

The Minister has sorted this out with the new arrangement. Now, the rich who could afford it are subsidizing the poor. The DISCOs are now covering up the majority of their costs from the sale of energy to the rich and passing the rest to the poor.

Truth be told, if energy is not subsidized in Nigeria, the poor cannot pay for a 24-hour uninterrupted supply based on the cost of production. Hence, the ingenious way of passing the burden to the rich. For the poor to be able to cope, they must embark on energy conservation tactics like the ones suggested by the Minister. Examples: turning off freezers not in use, turning off devices not in use, turning off lights when no one is home. These are done in the developed worlds to cut down on the bills. Why is our own different?

Coming to the issue of metering, before now, the DISCOs, because they were not sure of getting enough money, had resorted to giving crazy bills to customers in order to make a profit. They were never interested in giving out meters to anybody. They were just giving customers false hope. The increase in the cost of meters was intended to scare customers away so that they could continue on estimated billing.

Now, the Minister had just secured the approval of the President to give poor customers meters for free. It was in the news. This would be a follow-up to the appropriate pricing occasioned by the segregation of customers into different bands.

We are gradually getting there. When eventually, the generation capacity increases, and everyone is metered, customers would then be able to control the usage of energy, and the Discos too would be assured of the inflow of regular income to run their businesses.

The Minister only recently unbundled the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN so that the system operator can function independently of the TCN. This was done to enhance efficiency.

These are technical issues militating against the regular supply of electricity.

The Minister had been removing bottlenecks in the industry but to the uninitiated, he is not performing because the end results are not visible yet.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan sold the DISCOs to incompetent people. The government is bound by the terms of contract. People should understand what privatization means.

If the government takes its hands off power completely in the spirit of privatization, electricity would be priced out of the hands of the common man. The investors are expecting to make a profit. They are not spending money to maintain their distribution networks. They want the government to approve endless increase in tariffs so as to provide the necessary equipment, but the government is not willing to do that in order to keep the populace happy and the people continue to suffer.

The Minister’s approach was a way of thinking outside the box. The Fasholas and the Bola Iges of this world came before him and promised heaven and earth, yet nothing came out of it. Trust me, the guy is on the right track, considering the mess he met on the ground.

–Adeniyi Kazeem is a social commentator