TODAY, I wish to salute my fellow compatriots, hapless, ordinary Nigerians who are somehow still finding ways to remain aboard as the nation’s economic ship flounders in stormy waters occasioned by just two single events — removal of subsidy on petrol, and flotation of the national currency, the Naira.

As prices of basic goods and services rise beyond affordable levels, my heart continues to go out to fellow Nigerians, especially those who have two, three, or four children and more in primary and secondary schools. How do people manage? How does a couple with four children in between primary and secondary schools manage to see them off to school every morning?

To polygamists among us, I offer my special salute! I am talking of costs of breakfast, transportation to and back from school, lunchtime meals, and other unavoidable costs. Certainly, what some people were able to do with less than N50 daily when Nigeria was working now costs others thousands daily.

Still, as we grapple with these existential issues, those in charge of our affairs have stubbornly refused to do that which is right, or they do not have the vision to see what is right. Crucial to any economy is power, affordable electric power. Why have successive administrations since 1999 continued with a single grid transmission infrastructure for all the power generated in Nigeria? Why must all the power generated in Nigeria be distributed centrally?

Why can’t we break down the national grid, which collapses more often than an ogbanje child, into mini grids  to serve specific areas? Why are we still fixated on generated power, when embedded power offers more cost-effective and climate change-compliant options? Why has Nigeria not fully embraced the solar option? Why don’t we have solar farms in our country? Earlier this week, the Federal Government threatened to revoke operating licenses of the DISCOs over persistent poor power supply in the country.

My take is that whatever that needs to be done to make the DISCOs more efficient is welcome, but revoking their operating licenses will be akin to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face. For starters, the Federal Government owns 40% of the equity in each of the DISCOs, since PHCN was partially privatised. That 40% equity has not been paid up, which means that the DISCOs have been operating with just 60% of their expected share capital. Investible funds are, to all intents and purposes, still being withheld by government. Last December, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said it intends to sell the remaining 40 per cent shares of government in electricity distribution companies on the capital market in 2024.

Director-General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, disclosed this during a media chat in Abuja, and added that the original intent of “government following the partial privatisation of Discos was to list its 40 per cent on the stock market in a bid to democratise its ownership to more Nigerians, not just a core group of investors.

“One of the original intentions of the way that the partial privatisation of the Discos was done was to be able to list that 40 per cent that is still being held by the government in the stock market. And that way you are democratising the ownership of these government entities,” he said, and added that this would enable Nigerians to buy shares in the Discos. But what we have seen so far is that government, instead of either selling this equity, or paying it up, merely continued to warehouse it. Ministry of Finance Incorporated, MOFI, is now the custodian of government equity in the DISCOs. What it means is that badly-needed funds will not be available to the DISCOs in the foreseeable future, thereby ensuring that we continue to wallow in darkness, in the 21st century.

Back to the other issue, which is that of fuel, as it concerns petrol and diesel. If government does not generate a solution to the problems occasioned by subsidy removal, we are in for a very long, uncertain, harsh grind. Right now, diesel, at its cheapest is at least N1,500 per litre. Petrol is transported to filling stations nationwide by tankers that run on diesel. Many of our food items are taken to markets also by trucks that run on diesel.

If we don’t find a way to reduce the price of both diesel and petrol, we will not be able to mitigate the hardship in the land. Even the palliative items being distributed are hauled by diesel engine trucks. This again takes me to the issue of local refining. We seem to be at a cul-de-sac regarding what relief we may expect from the Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries. Meanwhile, we are busy destroying so-called illegal refineries. It will be recalled that as World War II progressed, the growing distrust between the West and the Soviet Union fuelled the race to gain an advantage over the other.

One of the things the US did was to launch an operation to forcefully evacuate the brightest minds of Germany and resettle them in the US. Scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other valuable individuals, especially those involved in the development of Germany’s war machine, were rounded up and evacuated. In total, the US evacuated roughly 1,600 scientists and their families. The US did not see the evil of Nazism in doing this, and it is instructive that these brains helped the US in no small measure to become a superpower, and retain that status till date. Why can’t we do same with illegal refineries? It is one home-grown technology that we should refine and bring to world class level. Certainly it will help the nation out of its refining problem.