Major towns and communities in the Aniocha and Oshimili local government areas of Delta State had been without electricity for two years, Political Economist investigations have revealed.
Major towns such as Ogwashi-Uku, Ubulu-Uku, Issele-Uku and environs have had to contend with the pain and agony of darkness for the past two years, and there appears no sign of redemption. In some parts of these towns, electricity poles bearing cables lay prostrate on the ground, some have fallen into bushes where they are overgrown by weeds.
Inquiries at the electricity generating offices in these towns met stiff walls as the officials feigned ignorance of the real reasons many communities in the state that generates power for the rest of the country would be thrown into darkness. At the Ogwashi-Uku office of the old PHCN, a staff told our correspondent that they have no clue as to when these communities” would see light again”.
Our correspondent gathered that operations in the offices had been crippled by corruption and paucity of funds. Nigerians had expected improved electricity supply after the privatisation of PHCN but the situation has worsened in most parts of the country. A Presidency source told our correspondent that President Goodluck Jonathan is miffed by the inability of the new owners of the power distribution and generating companies to get off the ground.
Our investigations revealed that the new owners lack the capital capacity to finance the power project. “Many of them borrowed to buy the privatised companies and having bought it with borrowed funds, they have run out of cash to start real re-engineering of the new companies”, a source said.
The source however told our correspondent that the Presidency is disposed to helping the new companies improve power delivery nationwide before electioneering for 2015 begins. “Agriculture, aviation and power are key campaign strong points for the president…out of the three, it is only power that the President cannot boldly say he has done well but he is determined to make it work for the people”.
This is in spite of the fact that Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has said power generation in the country had risen to more than 4000 mega watts.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mrs Kande Daniel, Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister on Wednesday in Abuja. It explained that the milestone was achieved due the concerted efforts to reduce system collapse and the general improvement in service delivery, among others. The statement emphasised that the country’s generation capacity picked up, getting to 4105.90mw as at Tuesday.
The statement said that Lagos, as industrial nerve centre, got the highest with 985 mw while Abuja got 410.80mw. It, however, added that the generation kept fluctuating and was 3,795.30 mw as at Wednesday morning
The statement maintained that the average power generation stood at 3,800 mw contrary to insinuations that power had dropped below 2,000 mw.
It also observed that the general view since last week suggested that many households now enjoyed enhanced power supply unlike what was obtainable in the recent past when vandalism was on the high.
The statement, however, re-affirms Federal Government’s resolve to consolidate efforts at removing all bottlenecks to sufficiency in power supply.
