By Cajetan Mmuta, Awka
Nigerians have expressed angst and disgust over recent World Bank’s damning report that the federal government borrowed a whooping sum of N1.3trillion to service the power sector since 2017 and the possibility of spending another N3.08trillion between now and 2023 for the same sector.

Their anger and worry stem from years of irreconcilable huge expenditure on the sector which to millions of Nigerians had gone down the drains yet without a commensurate result of power improvement but leaving the taxpayers and poor Nigerians in a deep mess of epileptic power supply across the length and breadth of the country.

Sadly, most industries have folded up while artisans, small and medium scale sector operators keep struggling amid excruciating economic nosedives without a corresponding leap or rescue from endless sufferings, as a result of obvious woes and helplessness of the power sector amid lamentations about outrageous bills.

Professor Agbarese Osifo, an Agro economist who bared his mind on the worrisome state of the nation’s power sector and endless borrowing by the federal government said, “The World Bank” resilience through reforms” report reflected the N1.3tr plus the additional N3.08tr through the year 2023 given the current tariff level of the sector.

He noted that “The money guzzling is to guarantee steady payment to the GENCOs and gas suppliers for them to continue generating electricity. The power generated is sold to the Discos.”

He explained that “Even though the six GENCOs and 11 Discos are private sectors investment outfits, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the bulk electricity trading company buy electricity from the GENCOs and resell to the Discos.”

According to him, the Federal Government of Nigeria uses the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to dictate what tariffs the Discos can charge consumers.”

While describing the ugly scenario as an aberration and clumsy economic policy arrangement, he faulted the move as “an aberration and a rather clumsy economic policy arrangement.”

He said, “Having privatized the sector, market forces ought to be the determinant of the tariffs paid by consumers. The vexed issue of subsidy in the petroleum sector is being replicated in the electricity sector.”

The University Don, “The FGN is subsidizing corruption and inefficiency. However, high tariffs translate to a high cost of production of goods and services to the economy. This also led to cost-push inflation.”

“The world bank and the other Brent Woods institutions are in the habit of prescribing the macroeconomic model used in the developed economies for the underdeveloped and developing countries.”

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He posited that the “Privatization of the electricity sector has been a disaster compared to the success story of the Telecom sector.”

“Electricity is a key sector that affects the industrial and economic sectors. The government needs to invest and manage its investment in a sustainable manner before privatization.

The current poor electricity supply, especially access to grid electricity is responsible for the low production and low productivity of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). This makes made in Nigeria goods to be very expensive and uncompetitive in the international market.”

“Virtually every household and every MSMEs own gasoline generators. These “stand by” generating sets actually generate far more than twice electricity than the national grid.”

The Federal government of Nigeria needs to formulate sound policy arrangements for the sector. The current hybrid of the combination of privatization and government control is responsible for the very poor performance of the electricity sector in Nigeria.”

Chairman of the Anambra State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Jerome Nubia, described the ugly trend as disastrously unfortunate and one that smacks of huge corruption and in contradiction of what the All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians that it would cleanse the economy and bring about the desired change.

He wondered the essence of the much talked about privatization of the power sector and other essential assets of government, insisting that such development as being painted amounts to “shambles” if such privatized assets cannot meet the yearnings and expectation of the masses at ensuring efficient service delivery to the nation.

Comrade Nnubia said, “It is a very unfortunate development because the idea of what we were told when some of these assets were being privatized was for the private sector to run them efficiently. So, one wonders why after the privatization of the GENCOs and Discos, the government is still investing in the same sector; that shows you the level of corruption in this country because there is no way when you privatize maybe services; the idea is for the private sector to reinvest.”

“How can the federal government after privatization and we were told that the essence was for the establishments to run effectively and efficiently and the same government is still investing money. What is the essence of that privatization? This is a very unhealthy development and it called for concern as well.”

“You can see the level of our situation; the economy is in shambles with inflation everywhere and even the electricity tariffs and all that. So, I begin to wonder, the services are not properly rendered and the people are struggling to get prepaid meters and such other things. What’s the essence of privatization? Why is the government still investing in the assets and establishments they have privatized? It is unfortunate.”

“For me, I don’t see reasons why this should be done. If the privatization is not working, the government should retrieve those assets unless they are doing it for their cronies and for political gimmicks and that is what it means. It is better the government handles it by itself than the privatization exercise.”
“This government had told us they are coming to fight corruption for a better economy but day by day, things are worsening. So, it is very unfortunate,” he stated.

Mrs. Ajuora Caroline Nkechi, 1st Deputy President, Awka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, (ACCIMA) lamented that such huge borrowing without a corresponding yield in positive action would place a huge burden on the citizens.

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She called for synergy with relevant experts and stakeholders towards redressing the anomalies in the sector with a view to bringing about positive improvement in the country’s business enterprise and other key sectors of the economy.

The ACCIMA boss said, “I think such huge borrowing that has not impacted positively on the citizens and the various productive sectors of the economy is too much; we have not paid for the ones we borrowed and we intend looking up for another. There is the need for us to look inwards and adequately manage the economy, appraise the outcome.”

“When that didn’t serve the purpose we should come together as stakeholders to discuss with the government. The government cannot be imposing a heavy burden on its citizenry without discussion and know the extent of the one we had borrowed to know where it had led us before we can think of going for another one.”