By Dale Sobowale
It was beautiful and simple; as all truly great swindles are.”

1910. Henry, 1862-1910. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 239).

America is sometimes called “Uncle Sam” or “God’s own country”. Perhaps Nigeria’s nickname should be “Fraud’s Own Country”. Literally hundreds of thousands of scams are perpetrated in this nation 24/7 as to make a reasonable man wonder if we have any other job – fake drugs, fake spare parts, fake drivers’ and vehicles’ licence, fake currency notes, illegal universities 9even medical schools), pirated Nollywood films, free bail for which the police demand money at all Police Stations, free medical while patients pay for blood, etc. Unbelievable as it is, governments are involved in an astonishing percentage of the scams.

Take electricity bills for instance. Every bill carries an entry saying Fixed Charges N750 per month. That charge, annualized, totals N9000 per annum and in twenty years will amount to N180, 000. That is about thirty times the cost of stringing a line to a new building in Ibadan twenty years ago. For more than ten years there had been no power supply to the house involved. Yet, the monthly bill arrives for N750. If that is not fraud, tell me what is. Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN (Problem Has Changed Name), handed that scam to the DISCOs, who courtesy of the Regulatory body, NERC, accepted the “stolen” funds.

However, before you shake your head, and start shouting for the Police to arrest the DISCOS, better read the rest of the article. But, let me start at the conclusion. DISCOS are not our problem. In fact, the DISCOS are the most unhappy victims of the swindle which privatization has become on account of abysmally low power supply by the power providers. Let me tell you a true story about the power sector to illustrate the point.

A wealthy friend of mine and his group were interested in acquiring one of the units and they put in a bid – before it came to my knowledge. Before the bids were opened, I told them to pray that they did not win. They thought I was crazy despite the explanations given to them – the reasons were based on my travels throughout Nigeria. My declarative statement was this. “I would not accept any of the units if given to me free.” They laughed at me then; they lost the bid and “cried”. Today, they are laughing again – at the winners; who would be too glad to be rid of the damn distribution companies. Why?

All the Distribution Companies had fallen prey to the lies told to them by the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the former Minister of Power, Professor Nebo regarding power supply from the time of acquisition. THE ROAD MAP TO POWER published in 2013 promised them 14,100MW by December 2013. Till today we have not reached 5000MW. Investors in DISCOS were deceived and they are stuck.

Most of us, as consumers, including people highly educated and who read papers every day, still operate with false notions about what DISCOS stand for and what they can do. Yet, unlike the past, prior to privatisation, the same government was responsible for power generation and supply; DISCOS are powerless to increase supply. Since privatisation, the DISCOS can only distribute whatever the generating and transmitting units provide for them. They cannot supply more; and it is not in their interest to supply less than they receive because, apart from fixed charges, they can only make money by supply maximum power to consumers.

Unfortunately the DISCOS are squeezed between the generating and transmitting units, which have consistently provided less than 4500MW and consumers who want up to 10,000MW. DISCOS receive the maledictions of consumers and their staff are the target of physical attacks when indeed they are victims like us – the consumers. A top bank official, whose bank financed the acquisition of one of the DISCOS while revealing to me the predicament of investors in DISCOS and their banks, wondered how many Nigerians are aware of the situation.

He mentioned the matter while other Club members were up in arms against DISCOS which they want disbanded and for government to take over the distribution once again. To me, reversing the privatisation of PHCN, even if there was inequity as alleged, will be disastrous for Nigeria.

Punishing DISCOS for no wrong doing on their part will amount to blaming another victim because we, the consumers, are suffering the negative impact of poor and unstable generation and supply.

There is no doubt in my mind that if the nation can generate 20,000MW and deliver to the DISCOS, they will pass every single megawatt to us. They are in business to make money, which they are not making at the moment. They will gladly make more of more power is made available to them.  Instead of attacking DISCOS and asking for privatization to be reversed, we should pressurize government to drastically increase power generation and the DISCOS will respond appropriately.

It has been necessary to make this point because among the mountains of advice President Buhari has been receiving; reversing power sector deregulation is one of them. It will constitute several steps backwards if it occurs. At any rate DISCOS cannot give what they don’t have.