That Adelabu’s power talk in Ibadan- By Sam Nwaoko
SoS – Sam on Saturday
Chief Adebayo Adelabu touched base with home recently. ‘Bayo Adelabu visited his native Ibadan not as a son of the soil which he is, or as a scion of legendary Chief Adegoke Adelabu of the ‘Penkelemesi’ fame, but as the Minister of Power in the Federal Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. As expected, he spoke ‘power English’ to the perennial electricity transmission, distribution and billing troubles in Nigeria. He spoke to the problems as they affect Ibadan, Oyo State and indeed Nigeria. The Minister of Power was also at a place the ordinary man in Ibadan still refers to as “NEPA Akinyemi Way”. Among the power people and workers of electricity, the place is known as Ayede 330/132KV Transmission Sub-station. It is a place where you are sure to hear electricity humming its menacing melody as you ride down the often serene street.
The ‘Power Minister’ had a lot to talk about on the pathetic public power situation in Ibadan and Nigeria. They all revolved around steps that should and might be taken to ease the pain of Nigerians in this shamefully dark aspect of our national life. He also raised points around sundry matters of electricity generation and its confusing and lopsided distribution to consumers. To the man on the street that has not been supplied electricity for days, all Bayo Adelabu said was just like the typical self-rinsing of the face: it always ends at the chin. It’s easy to ask Nigerians to take the issue of electricity supply in the chin, but it’s still painful. What the ordinary man wants is to turn on the light and see. He wants to charge his mobile handset and he needs electricity to power his refrigerator with which he sells ice blocks, water and drinks. He is not given to the technical grammar by the power minister and his people which does not translate to the availability of the commodity.
Bayo Adelabu is now a federal commodity but he must have heard from home what has become of electricity power supply in Ibadan since the beginning of this year. He must have been told, if he has not heard by himself, that the supply of the commodity had grown far worse in more parts of the city than the previous years. Those previous years included the years of Buhari which many agree were the darkest in the annals of our nascent democratic experience. His visit to power installations in Ibadan nay Oyo State and to the almighty Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) amounts to nothing if power supply is not improved. It is not going to get simpler than that in any way.
As much as the minister explained and narrated, he still hasn’t said anything beyond what Alhaji Shehu Shagari said when he was campaigning for the presidency in early 1979. As the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) candidate, he too spoke like a man who was willing to make an impact. His promises on improved electricity supply to the country was the lead story on the front page of one of the editions of the Nigerian Tribune of that era. Interestingly, he made the promise while campaigning in Ibadan. Today, 45 years after Shagari’s promise, the same electricity still remains one of the most prominent campaign issues in Nigeria. It is still just the way Shagari said it more than four decades ago. Electricity, road infrastructure and (a new addition to the raging monsters) insecurity, are the known devils intently dragging Nigeria backwards the most.
During Shagari, the technology was mostly hydro. We ran on that for a long time. Now, during Tinubu, the issues are around gas with dollops of hydro electricity and solar energy. To add to those, issues around power plants, power evacuation, poor distribution and billing are among the modern topics. Agreed that the times have changed, these were not the names electricity was called in 1979. There were no burdensome technicalities up to the time of Kainji, Afam and Shiroro. It was simply electricity – how best to generate it and supply it efficiently to Nigerians. If the country was growing, our power generation and distribution should have been growing also. Our electricity generation and supply issues are among the muffled indicators of our status as a developing or developed economy, regardless of the pedestal they place Lagos on among the best cities in the world.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) which has been in power in Nigeria since 2015 promised us something on electricity power generation. The party told Nigerians that it would “generate, transmit and distribute from the current 5,000 – 6,000MW to at least 20,000MW of electricity within four years and increasing to 50,000MW with a view to achieving 24/7 uninterrupted power supply within ten years, whilst simultaneously ensuring development of sustainable/renewable energy.” The number of times our national electricity grid collapsed during the Buhari era is a pointer to the state of health of that sector – the mellifluous language of Femi Adesina’s whitewashing book on Buhari’s regime notwithstanding.
The APC blew Nigerians away with their loud and audacious propaganda. With the APC of that era, Nigerians were like a girl in deep infatuation. The party soon became the choice and it knocked Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) off the coveted power dais. However, to the shock and chagrin of many admirers and supporters of APC, it has been from one bombastically coined excuse to another. In many instances, the arrogance and disdain in their excuses and incompetence rankle the brain.
Bayo Adelabu has also maintained the flow of these excuses, explanations and deliberate meandering. There are a few things Adelabu said without actually voicing them. Those things are loud in our ears and clear in our purview. He knows those things and might have spoken about them in private: The electricity distribution companies are grossly incompetent. All of them. They are embarrassingly lacking in capacity and have been drastically under-performing.
A monarch in Ondo State once pointedly spoke on the lack of capacity of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC). The Olu Igbokoda, Oba Odidiomo had a bully pulpit: His domain had been without public electricity supply for over 15 years. As a modern man and a egalitarian traditional ruler, he took it up with the relevant authorities and got to the table of BEDC. However, rather than doing something about the demeaning situation, the BEDC twisted and turned the matter into a shapeless scenario. The seething monarch couldn’t understand the crassness in the company’s technical ability and professionalism. Oba Odidiomo also knows that only powerful Nigerians and their equally powerful collaborators can emerge as “core investors” unlike Sabinus. He couldn’t shout loud enough to tell them this. Sadly, it is not in Adelabu’s place to lambast the distribution companies publicly. Our dear minister has to be politically correct at all times and at everywhere, even while at home among his people in Ibadan. Sometimes, the truth is so difficult to tell. E get why…
Reports in some quarters hold that electricity supply to the 11 power distribution companies in Nigeria has decreased. Is this true, Honourable Minister sir? In 2022, a newspaper report quoted a stakeholder in the power sector as saying that over 40 percent of the available capacity of electricity generating companies is redundant due to constraints. The report added that generated power is often rejected by the distribution companies or they are forced to reduce it because of the distributing companies’ poor infrastructure and lack of capacity.
Until Nigerians can turn on the light indeed, the gross incompetence in the sector will remain on their lips, and they will not cease to holler at whoever is holding the leash of their freedom. Until electricity distribution officials stop imposing extraneous fees on them, the name-calling of concerned officials at all levels will not cease. Estimated billing is another vexatious point that doesn’t seem to have an expiry date. Adelabu should know these as some of the sore points. He should also add poor energy supply to the list.
Also, communities procure electricity transformers by themselves. They levy themselves to buy such transformers. Electricity officials would still be paid huge bribes to install and power the transformer. Some of them are even feted by the happy community because they can now boast of a transformer! And the transformer will still not be the property of the community. These are among the issues the ordinary man would want properly addressed, in addition to outright non-supply of electricity. That power talk at IBEDC is not helping matters. It’s just talk!
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