Power subsidy, where?

I have read everywhere on social media that Abia’s wonder man, Alex Oti, plans on playing God. It has nothing to do with the general boast of Abians that theirs is the only state in the Bible. It is doubtful that Mr Oti consulted his priests before signing the documents that his supporters swear would make Abia the first state in Nigeria to have access to 24/7 electricity supply. That must be sacrilege because it is only in Scriptures that God commanded light to be and has so far backed it up.

In Nigeria, successive regimes have created a sinkhole in which they plunge billions of dollars against the divine command. Government has created this vacuity to return to their preferred status of Tohu wa-bohu because government deeds are not only evil, they are unchallengeably better done in obscurity.

It is doubtful that Mr. Oti consulted with the most powerful minister in any government – the power ministry currently occupied by the Ibadan scion, Adebayo Adelabu known by his grandfather’s sobriquet Pẹnkẹlẹmẹẹsi. It is not often that a Yoruba man would let Amadioha beat Sango in a power contest but it is happening. It is obvious too that Amadioha might beat Sango to pre-eminence. That might lead to an evil war of two powerful idols.

Apparently, Chief Adelabu did not appease his tribal God because the people who need power most are in darkness and likely to remain there while those who should pay are subsidised. Sango’s electric wand only punishes those who break its code, it does not supply those who don’t.

On appointment to the power ministry, Chief Adelabu was not known to have appeased the god of thunder, instead his Ibadan compatriots organised special prayers with foreign deities at war with Sango for his success at the power ministry. May the Ibadan chief live long, because his uncle, Chief Bola Ige, the late Cicero of Esa-Oke and the last person to occupy that ministry from the Oyo-Osun axis, did not live to fulfil his promise to bury the evil in the power ministry before his gruesome assassination. Raji Fashola the last occupant from the Western axis spent his time speaking legal jargon. Oti appears to prefer hard work to prayers. Religious people would swear that Nigeria survives on prayer. Honesty and work could usually wait.

Thus, as Nigerians waited for Pẹnkẹlẹmẹẹsi to reveal his magic wand to end all problems in the power sector, what they got was the usual Rehoboam response to performance – my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions! That was the effect that Adelabu’s last interaction with the nation on power had to the Nigerian ear. In that announcement, Adelabu pronounced that the only recipe for uninterrupted power supply was to follow the IMF strategy to remove the subsidy on electricity.

That would be the first time most Nigerians would hear of a power subsidy. Since President Tinubu became Nigeria’s new man, Nigerian asthmatics have come to realise that the subsidy on oxygen is gone. The puffers they used to buy for hundreds is now sold in thousands and mostly unavailable. Nigerians have come to interpret subsidy with increased suffering.

We all know that those in government have kept their exotic rides even as the poor have perished the dream of riding on Tokunbo – the rejects of other nations. When President Tinubu announced that he was removing the subsidy on petroleum products, majority of Nigerians knew that the one-chance phenomenon birthed in Lagos has entered the national stratosphere.

Those who used to boast that their pastor’s prayers that people of other denominations would genuflect to them for subsistence no longer have their Tokunbo as practical testimony. If we had the power, we would have asked Chief Adelabu to open the books for us to see who had been enjoying this phantom subsidy on power.

Nigerians have watched as Never Expect Power Anyway, NEPA metamorphosed into Never Expect Power, Please Light Candle, NEP Plc; then to realise that Problem Has Changed Name, PHCN before things took a musical rhyme with GenCos and DisCos. The only thing that has remained consistent all through was the mass corruption in the power generation and distribution sector and the phenomenon known as crazy bills.

Nigerians have witnessed that even with metered electricity, the concept of better power has remained a painful ripoff. The promise of free meters had not materialised.

Consumers have continued to pay for their meters and are required to ‘show appreciation’ when it gets delivered and installed. As for getting value for the units purchased, the whole charade reminds them of how they have remained at the mercy of mobile telephone companies where the charges hardly justify the service paid for.

The Nigerian state brings out the truth in the saying of our elders that if one stayed long enough at the smith’s, they soon learn what is fabricated with raw steel.

Last week, the usual devil in the detail emerged revealing whose power is being subsidised and who is being scammed. The usual suspects include our military. Its chief came out to plead that the N42 billion debt his department owes the electricity companies be rescheduled. He is particularly bothered that military morgues where the casualties of our unending war on insecurity and insurgency are dumped before interment polluting the air that survivors breathe.

Before you say that you have heard this story before, enemies of the regime leaked a disconnection notice from the power city – Abuja distribution company. On that list were names of those whose power the rest of us are subsidising. They include Aso Rock Villa, Tinubu’s office. Those who were shocked, had to virtually hold their fragile hearts, because even Mr. Adelabu’s ministry is a chronic debtor – like a teacher owing his pupils, collateral damage or own goal.

If you accuse Mr Adelabu of cow-towing to the IMF in a bid to get us to pay for the excesses of the ruining class, you might not be far from the truth. But do not speak too loud as the government hates being confronted with the truth.

Mr. Adelabu is in good company. Over 20 other federal ministries are confirmed power thieves. All the 36 state governments with liaison offices in Abuja have been enjoying subsidised power. Together, their N47 billion debt to power companies is enough to wreck some weak country’s economy.

Depending on when the debtor list was compiled, and under prevailing exchange rates, these debtors could wreck the nation. Nothing has been said about the fact that each and every one of these debtors have had power generation built into their annual budgets. The big question is where these budgeted funds usually end up. We know it does not end where it should.

We also know that nobody has ever been brought to account for the diversion of these huge funds or made to explain what happened to them. At the Villa, they augment with more allocations for the supply of diesel to power the pollutants that light up the seat of government even as Nigeria makes appearances at global climate change conferences.

If Nigerians had power or representation, they’d be on the streets demanding that the withdrawal of the so-called subsidy on power wait until those in government have accounted for every kobo budgeted but squandered between the budgeting office, the finance ministry, the auditors and anyone supposed to police budgeting implementation. Unfortunately, the government does not like being questioned and Nigerians have no power to stop the companies from enforcing payment by the hoi-polloi. As a result, the debtor ministries, departments and agencies would continue to enjoy subsidised electricity while those who pay their dues are left in darkness without recourse to remediation from the law.

Except Tinubu grows the liver to investigate the rot in the power sector, Nigeria will never realise its dream of ever having constant power as Africa’s most populous nation. It would continue to bear taunts from countries like South Africa which lately took us to the ministry of embarrassment by substituting pollutant generator noise for our national anthem. What’s more, the tradition of diverting budgetary allocations into the pockets of kleptomaniacs will forever continue as power ministry officials keep feeding us on the diet of fake and unfulfilled promises.