These days we are being assaulted regularly on our TV screens by different politicians making promises they don’t intend to keep. The interesting thing is that we have heard it all before. ” I will repair the roads”, “I will provide jobs for all”, ” The programs of my administration will outrightly obliterate poverty”. “Education for all”. These are all high sounding promises. They score points though, they sway the masses.
I heard that one of the presidential aspirants was addressing the Niger Delta, and promised them that he would start a ministry of Niger Delta, and that the minister of petroleum will always be from the Niger Delta area. He went further to inform them that if they vote for him… the crowd did not allow him to land. The interrupted him, it is not if they vote, it is when they vote :). Promises, promises, promises. As soon as they get into power it all becomes history. The first assignment becomes recouping the investments that brought them into power.
While in a discussion with a few friends though, I suddenly discovered that we don’t really need many things in this country. In reality, I’m looking for a leadership aspirant who comes out publicly to tell us the following lines.
“I do not promise to repair the roads, I will not eradicate poverty, I will not provide education for all, neither will I guarantee Jobs for all, the only thing I will do in my 4yrs tenor is give you power (light), I will achieve 1yr of uninterrupted power supply in the last year of my 4yrs tenor, and I will assure you that a system will be in place to make sure it continues. This is the only agenda I have for the 4yrs.”
Believe me, if a presidential aspirant says this, he’ll have my votes! Give us power, everything else is easy.
It’s such a shame that 47yrs after we gained independence we have not celebrated 1 full day without power interruption. Businesses are dying for the high cost of providing their own infrastructure. Behind the building I rent for office space there are at least 8 diesel generators (I won’t count the petrol generators), all powering businesses that are struggling to break even. Productivity nose dives when generators breakdown, generators with 15yrs guarantee barely last a year with us, we use the generators and NEPA as backup.
We sleep in darkness here, most of us. I daily go to sleep ahead of my generator – I prefer it goes off after I have worked myself to sleep. Heat is punishment for me, and it should be for you too, if you just haven’t gotten used to pain. It is suffering that makes cow hide sweet. Give us Power!
Our expectations have been weakened over time, we feel great these days, when we have power for most of a day. My 2yr old baby girl already shouts NEPA when light goes and comes, she is growing up to expect it like that – God forbid! Give us Power!
But how will you be motivated to give us power, when the lords that supply generators are the one’s financing your campaign, how will you give us power when those that sell us diesel are those that recommend you to us? How will you give us power when miscreants consistently vandalize the gas turbines. Why will you give us power, when there is so much else at stake if you do? We understand that giving us good roads ought to be easy, at least it means you are providing contracts for your fellows, giving us good education should be easy, at least we can start from your town. Giving us power is so complex, we know, but that is what we want. Give us power, power is all we need!
We are in Nigeria, not because things are not rough, but because we believe in better days. I am here not because my passport doesn’t license me to be somewhere else. I’m here because I know that the song of our children in the future will hedge on the labors of we heroes past. We are here, because we know that when the soup is not sweet and the pounded yam not well pounded is when you know the real pounded yam lover. If anyone sees the president to be, tell him I said, power is all we need!
Or what do you think?
17 thoughts on “Power is all we need!”
Yes o,It ius power or nothing.I was discussing with an elderly man yesterday and i told him,I ma afraid if we’ll ever get out of this power problem in the next coming regim.Why?I ma not sounding pessimistic but one of the major financier opf a leading presidential apirant contols 80m p[er cent of diesel market in lagos,maily powering generators!.
This post is kind of funny; I love it!
But immagine Nigeria with uninterrupted Power supply; it would definitely be a sweet place to live in.
It would definitely be!
I am resident in the UK and I know that most of the basic amenities we enjoy in this part of the world are all by products of constant supply of power. The London underground, big Ben, London high, Tower Bridge and the famous driverless Dockland light railway would definitely not exist without power. I see most of our leaders come to this country and see the way things work and yet they refuse to emulate such back home. Do you know that the light that illuminates the bus stops in London is powered by Solar panels and yet this is a city that only sees proper sunshine for two months in a year, the British rail tracks are also powered by solar panels. In Nigeria we have so much solar energy that even the sun has started using our skins as panels if only to remind us of its usefulness. Power is the most important instrument in any country’s economy, we all saw what happened a few years ago when New York was in darkness, it was chaos and confusion.
The other day a governor gave out over five thousand computers to secondary school, he said he wanted them to be computer literate, so that they could compete with their mates in other parts of the world, can someone please tell this governor that computers are powered by electricity or what is the use of building a multi- billion naira teaching hospital without providing for electricity. The enormorsity of the power issue cannot be more captured than during the PDP Presidential nomination exercise when power was lost for about 15 minutes and drivers were told to use their Headlamps to illuminate the place.
We need a government that would give us power so that the average Nigerian can regain both their sanity and self respect. Let the average Nigerian have something to be proud of, we can use solar power to electrify all the roads in Nigeria thereby reducing the waste of lives on our roads, the set up cost is not as much at all, in America you can buy solar packs that would power 20 sockets, 2 air conditioners, 1 freezer and a fridge.
The lack of power has made Nigeria the worst place to invest even though we know Return on Investment in Nigeria is very high compared to other countries.
I dream of a Nigeria where university students would not have to use Candles to read and where little kids would be able to watch educative programmes on television after school instead of been exposed to the elements of the street at an early age, where the railway system would exist and where every one would be able to have a peaceful evening without the noise of the is called “I better pass my neighbour”, where our wives don’t have to go to the market everyday because there is no way of preserving perishables.
Our Leaders must remember that nothing good comes out of darkness except confusion, chaos and backwardness
Deolu, i just hope someone will hear. The kind of trauma one goes through when you are going home and you have planned your night , how you are going to read, do some write-ups and you get home, the almighty NEPA/ PHCN had done their worst.
In some areas, we have the promise of one day off and two days on, but the two days may be two- hour a day stuff, what do you do?
Any way , i am a PR expert and i understand this stuff is not good for our image particularly when it is online, i will just pray that things change and that should be fast
uhhh!!!! My heart is heavy. I wonder if all those responding are Nigerians or not. I know you are a Nigerian Deolu. So, i have not much problems with you. Infact you have been playing your part. These respondents have started playing thiers. My problem is that how many of those who wanted positive changes in Nigeria make it to the Voter’s Registration Points? I agreed it was planned to scheme/discourage people to participate. Knowlegde of that is enough for US to make sure we participated in the programme. Im yet to know how we will vote them out without a voter’s card!!! Though, it maybe because i am politically consious, i ensured that everymember of my extended family above age 18years got registered; i parted with personal fund in some cases. I have provided them with profiles of Prof. Pat Utomi, Donald Duke (thoguh sent out of race now), Pastor Okotie and also Y’adua&Goodluck. They are making up thier mind. Information is what we need now to reform our mind so that reformation that bring isuues like POWER can come to PASS. POWER is synonimous to STRENGHT, ENERGY, ABILITY,the list is endless. Once, you are been deny these power (which is electricity from science angle), you are deprived of all above. Why wont you have chaos, darkness,etc. Please, Deolu and my fellow Nigerians, our destiny certainly is our HAND (pardon me;it is in fingerprint of OUR HAND).
We might have missed registeration for Voter’s cards or been unable to encourage our people to register. But, we have chance to inform duly registered voters that we know, that the key to have 24hrs-7days-54weeks power/electricity supply is in thier fingers.
Those that tell US that POWER BELONG TO US are there daily holding ‘DISCO PARTY” everyday,everywhere parading themselves as if they are doing new things!! But MY HOPE IS ALIVE that Nigeria will shine again not only of UNINTERUCPTED POWER/ELECTRICITY SUPPLY but also of PURPOSEFUL LEADERSHIP.
Think my heart is light now, GREAT DAY TO ALL!!!
Chris, i wonder why you have decided to insult us all except deolu by questioning our parentage/Citizenship. I suggest we keep this thread professional.Those of us in the diaspora do not have the right to vote and in my own case my aged parents queued for hours in the hot sun to register but unfortunately the INEC official did not turn up and that aplies to many other Nigerians.
The Topic here is the impact lack of power is having on the lives of Nigerians in general.
Power is all we need!! The greatest ingredient to get this done is WILL POWER. The solution albeit is private sector participation in the provision of electricity. The outgoing regime is always quick to point at their success in the telecoms sector but what made it possible was that it is private sector driven. If this had been done with the power sector, the story today will be different. So what is missing? WILL POWER to contend with those forces – generators and diesel importers and distributors who are either in government themselves or control those in government. I recall the discussion I had with a friend who works with the World Bank in Washington in September 1999, then current regime was 4mths old. He listed what you can call a four point action plan that should have made this regime very successful and boosted the country’s economy – telecommunication, power, transportation (roads, rail system), and reforms (education, health, social, etc). Can anyone tell me what else is not tied to all of these? The economy barely run 6hours due to the lack of power when so many economies run 24-7. Imagine the explosion we will have in the economy if businesses can run 24hrs, that will be 3 shifts of workers and of course the other cycle of economics will set in. More people you have employed, more consumption, more production and more employment. These things are not rocket science but I wonder why when ‘akara balls get to us they turn to bones’ are we so toothless?! We have the 7th largest reserve of gas, 8th largest exporter of crude oil yet we cannot generate enough megawatts of power for the citizens. My brother, my heart is very heavy.
Donald Duke is out of the race. Pat Utomi too. So who am I supposed to vote for then? I cant see anybody else.
Anyway, sorry to distract from the main topic. We were talking about power right?
Gentlemen and Ladies,
I’d like to invite us to read this indepth analysis “Nigeria’s Energy Crisis” by Ijeoma Nwogwugwu. Check the link here: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=69760
(btw: if you’re not getting the full article to read, you can register and/or log in)
I pray someone’d agree with me on this – I just pray!
Hmmm!
Power! If only we had enlightened leaders with broad minds. It’s only myopic thinking that makes a leader not realize that the labours of today will touch even his own lifes after his leaves office. Power touches every segment of our lives. Give us power and nobody will care so much about the cost of petrol and diesel. Who needs to stock fuel/diesel when there is assurance of constant power? If only when can get a leader who knows this power problem is really NOT such an unbeatable problem. Make it private sector driven and even those who thrive on Gen biz will become participants to the ultimate good of all. How I wish educated, and focus minded individuals like Donald Duke are given the opportunity to lead. The task before us is to propagate this agenda. God look down on us and give us a leader who will reform the power sector….Amen!
The problem with infrastructure failure in Nigeria is leadership.
Well, the present administration in Nigeria has done all the best it can.
Let us hope the next administration puts genuine policy commitment on POWER .
In my opinion, only Public Private Partnership will save the situation
Indeed, power is all we need. We need lots of ‘Power’ to overcome our power problems. Come to think of it, imagine the great challenge required to put the ‘Generator Giants’ out of business. Nigeria’s lack of power has ’empowered’ some people financially who’ll rather retain their precious possesion than opt for the greater good of the masses. I believe that over 60% of our economic problems will be solved if this gorilla called ‘energy crisis’ is finally caged..
Truly, if we ever had constant power, practically all our problems would be solved. Well, I’m away that there are reforms going on in that sector, I really hope that these reforms can translate into 24/7/365 power for us all. PS: If we ever had an underground system in Nigeria at this point in time, I’d never bother going by tube o, what if NEPA struck? LOL
All we need is deregulation of the power sector, just like the case of the telecom sector. This is what the current administration promised us initially, but since then it changed its mind and now it’s pouring billions of naira into the bottomless pit known as PHCN. No matter how much money they get, they will always ask for more. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if the power sector is privatized today, we will have a “power revolution”, so why has that not been done? It’s an inexcusable failure.
The cycle continues. Diesel/petrol dealer – generator dealer – president (ial aspirant). But that cycle must be disbanded. Let the dealers in petroleum products find other ways of balancing their accounts and let the exhaust from those generators stop ending innocent citizens who may not even be able to afford one themselves to early graves or danger lists in the hospitals.
It is a known fact that the chaos the erratic power supply has done to our economy and individuals are unbearable.
Everybody are in complete dissatisfaction with the power sector especially the way the government has been handling the issue of power generation.
I’m always saddened anytime I heard people made fake promises on power generation and immediately they get to office they will do almost nothing to tackle the issue of power which has been one of the things responsible for our economic under-development.
Businesses are dying and the use of generator is having adverse effects on our environment.
But there is hopeas someone I believe can do it is in the race. He is Prof. Patrick Utomi. I think if given a chance he can tackle the issue of power generation.
many people have writteen letters to the senate president telling him to make sure that phcn stop using generators in their offices. can you imagine that? one of the problem we are having in Nigeria today is because our leaders have too many visons and goals to achieve in just a little time.
President Yar’dua has 6 poing agenda and now, 2years after, he hasnt even achieved one out of the six point.
just like chairman has rightly said, anyone who can promise me to give me power in his first 4 years in office, certainly has won my vote.