The Figure below depicts the layout of a typical city in sane countries and Nigeria.
The City A seems well-planned, organized with paved roads, public buildings, courts, malls, hospitals and industrial areas well laid out. Mostly, the streets are wide and paved, each building has a unique number code by which it is identified, and each apartment and resident known and on a database. In City A, all data of businesses, residents, institutions and establishments are known. Taxes are paid. There’s a definite and known Municipal Government!
City B is typical of Nigeria. The layout is something to behold from the air; a confusing jungle of Brown roofs, shanties, refuse dumps and whatever else. Huge churches within residential areas and a cattle market located next to a school. Most streets are unpaved and open sewers and gutters everywhere. There might be a little enclave for the City Elite designated as GRA but on the whole, the City B has buildings without unique number codes known to the sane world. There’s almost no data on apartments and residents. It’s all man to himself. No city in Nigeria has a City (Municipal) Government.
With the known data of the well-planned City A, the Municipal Government has designated Public Utility Companies. These companies are saddled with the task of providing (say) electricity for the city. They already have data so they plan based on consumption patterns. They build the intra city grid with district transformers and substations. They know the consumption of each building; and are involved in issuing permits for proposed buildings in order to project the electricity consumption and plan for same. With this data, they effectively ensure that whatever power you consume, is paid for.
With the tariff payments from residents, they pay to the power supplier (GENCO or DISCO) whatever power was purchased on behalf of the city, through the municipal government! Damn effective! And they pay the accruing taxes to the municipal.
There are no such platforms in City B; the 1999 Constitution has ensured that wouldn’t happen. So the federal government controls everything, and licensed some firms from Abuja to COLLECT ALL POWER REVENUES FROM ALL CITIES IN NIGERIA!
Of course, without any data of worth, the DISCOs that bought the NEPA assets could not believe the “One Chance” bus they boarded! There was no way they could determine the power consumption, number of consumers, buildings or establishments connected to their power supply. Much as they tried to install pre-paid meters and exert control, they discovered the atrocious costs of collections! They’ve got no idea where their customers are. How do you bill customers in a jungle?
They resorted to all sorts of gimmicks; they bill known customers high to make up for the Energy Theft! And Energy Theft is huge!
In the Kano/Kaduna/Abuja/Yola DISCOs, it’s as high as 44% in places (Kano) where 44% of the consumers are simply not known (that of the North is particularly high due to the fact that the then government-owned NEPA deliberately did not meter the customers as a social but twisted practice to favor them; and the DISCOs are paying for that indiscretion now).
Most DISCOs in Nigeria are almost ready to throw-in the towel and flee! And flee they shall, unless the philosophy of power supply is changed. And to change that, the 1999 Constitution must change! See? Elections ain’t gonna save us yet!
Common Sense says that for the DISCOs to survive, they need to go into partnership with the Municipal Governments! Common Sense says that for the citizens to have adequate power, they must run their own municipal governments! But there are no municipal governments according to the federal stupidity called Constitution! Stalemate!
To have adequate power supply, we need the Municipal Governments! And a degree of autonomy! What the federal government has set out to do is impossible anywhere in the world! So when they tell you they would provide electricity with this method, with the impossible costs of over 5 trillion Naira, it is NOT true! Whatever president or party tells you they could make things work with this Constitution is telling blatant lies!
Without the Municipal Governments, with a great degree of freedom, there shall be no light! This, my friends, is the truth!
To have a semblance of sanity for the citizens, the City A has it. The City B is on the highway to destruction.
We must #restructureOrBurst….or continue to believe that unicorns exist!
Shalom.
