National Grid, Alau Dam Collapse: Who Pays?, by Hassan Gimba

The Arbiter

The national grid collapsed three times last month and twice this month. This year, it has collapsed at least 11 times. This underscores our long-standing struggle to have a consistent power supply, even if not for the whole nation, at least for those fortunate enough to have access to the few megawatts produced by the so-called “Giant of Africa.”

While last week, Niger Republic was able to add no fewer than 18 megawatts to its national grid in just four months, Nigeria, with an installed capacity of 16,348MW, achieved only 5,313 megawatts as of September this year.

Our travails with power generation and distribution are not only limited to the continuous and confusing changes in the names of the power regulatory authority but also concern complex and convoluted financial deals and outright fraud, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ola Olukoyede, hinted when the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes visited the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja last week.

In 2016, the House of Representatives instituted a probe into allegations that former President Olusegun Obasanjo spent $16 billion on the power sector with no tangible result.

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That probe, which President Muhammadu Buhari hinted at re-opening, remains closed. Many Nigerians would not be overly shocked if the file had developed wings. After all, we are in a country where serpents and monkeys have raided safes and made away with money, and nothing happened to the bearers of such tall tales.

Anyway, nothing has been done about it, and from all indications, nothing will happen. And Nigerians, ever the people with short memories and limited attention spans, have moved on—not asking why, not caring how, and not giving a hoot about the implications of accepting everything as “business as usual.”

But this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

We are witnesses to the continuous collapse of the national grid. So far, in October this year alone, the national grid has collapsed three times and at least twice this month. This year, it has collapsed 11 times and 27 times in the last three years, with nine collapses in 2022 alone and four in 2023. Have we quantified the losses to the nation in terms of lives and finances?

First, hospitals and clinics have critical areas that require a constant electricity supply. Vaccines, medicines, blood (and its products), and other laboratory processes must always be refrigerated at regulated temperatures to maintain potency. Likewise, some machines and instruments require an uninterrupted electricity supply. Even if lives were not lost, how many people in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and Special Baby Care Units (SBCUs) have suffered damages, some irreparable?

Can we quantify the man-hour losses in workplaces where electricity is a mandatory factor of production? These are the majority. What about financial losses? Had we a proper database and an effective financial tracker, we would have arrived at figures in the billions or trillions that must have been lost due to the frequent grid collapses.

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To solve this problem, our state governments can set up power-generating and distributing franchises individually or in partnership with other states and/or entrepreneurs. Yet, one must still ask: What will happen to those responsible for the embarrassingly recurrent collapse of the national grid?

According to the EFCC chairman, the frequent collapse of the national grid is linked to fraud in the electricity sector, especially in the use of poor and substandard materials. “Nigerians would weep if they knew the monumental fraud in the electricity sector,” he quipped.

Well, he should tell us because we have wept enough for Nigeria that, for some of us, our tear glands have dried up. We have become so accustomed to the vagaries of our people in high places that nothing shocks us anymore.

But will he tell us? No. Will anyone be made to pay for the continued national grid collapse? Again, no. But this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

This is why I am not surprised that those who gave false, unprofessional reports to the Borno State Government, claiming that the Alau Dam would not collapse—only for it to burst three days later, killing hundreds, displacing thousands, and destroying properties worth billions of naira—are still sitting comfortably in their offices, running state affairs as “business as usual.”

Nobody has been made to pay for their reports that killed people and destroyed properties. And nobody will pay for it, I can tell you. Those who died have gone, and that is the end of the matter! Those who gave the false reports are likely now involved in distributing “relief materials,” and even there, it will be business as usual. Relief distribution is another honey pot.

But this is Nigeria. But is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

Taking Nigeria’s problems to heart and carrying them on your head can and will break one down—perhaps never to rise again.

Therefore, to keep your sanity, one must find ways to release bottled-up tension, frustrations, and anxiety. In Nigeria, we are never short of them. Anything that happens in other countries that could break hearts and possibly bones and lives, in Nigeria, we find ways to turn into banter.

Now, what is trending is the escapades of the ‘Superman,’ the libidinous Baltasar Ebang Engonga, derogatively called The Banger. The man has placed his country, Equatorial Guinea, in deplorable international limelight, consigning to the background the fact that its President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, is the longest-serving president in the world and that it is the only country with a father and son as president and vice-president!

His memes, skits, new dancing steps, and greetings—all in his “honour”—have taken over social media and provided some comedic entertainment.

Sadly, this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

Lest I forget

The late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, received a farewell salute from his Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was present at his funeral ceremony. The former Chief of Army Staff, late Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, who served from 28 January 2021 to 21 May 2021 and died in the 2021 NAF Beechcraft B300 King Air 350i crash near Kaduna International Airport, did not receive that privilege from President Buhari, who is a general himself.

President Tinubu’s action is impressive and commendable; it went a long way towards boosting the morale of the military personnel, who now know they have a caring Commander-in-Chief.

Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the publisher and CEO of Neptune Prime.