Late September 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the south eastern part of the United States and brought along with it high winds and devastating rainfall that ravaged the coastal areas with huge storms. The hurricane caused extensive destruction and death across the southeastern states. Homes and businesses, as well as critical infrastructure and landscapes were destroyed, and by the time the hurricane’s strength was spent, it had caused billions of dollars in damages. Among the critical infrastructure destroyed was the power infrastructure that serviced the communities and consumers in the southeastern USA.
The interesting part of this occurrence, however, is that the restoration of the destroyed power infrastructure (like many hurricane-caused before it) was not done by US national power company or Washington-controlled regulatory authority but by cooperatives owned privately by the power consumers in each locality. “We are sending out 30 trailer truck loads of materials every day out of our supply cooperatives”, said Mike Couick, CEO of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. This is a case study (a model) of how things work in a truly federal and effectively deregulated economy.
Privately-owned electric (power) cooperatives can be found in USA. They provide power to over half the landmass of the country. As at the last check, there are over 900 of these cooperatives in 47 states that are providing power to more than 42 million people who are living in about 2,000 towns and cities. These privately-owned cooperatives are good part of the US electric utility industry that is valued at over US$485 billion. Consumers themselves, in a superbly-functioning economy, formed these electric cooperatives to handle their power generation and distribution instead of being at the mercy of insalubrious practices of a national behemoth whose antecedents and modus operandi would always focus more on cheating and shortchanging consumers.
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Now in Nigeria, despite the apparent shortcomings and challenges confronting the federally-controlled and centralized power sector operations, the federal government wants to continue playing the ostrich instead of coming to term with reality. In its attempt to generate and distribute power, the Federal Government by Decree No. 24 of 1972 created the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) when it merged the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and Niger Dams Authority (NDA). From the days of ECN to NEPA and later PHCN and to whatever names they are called today, Nigerians, for decades and as a result of intractable national structure challenges, have been suffering untold hardships, estimated billings for services not provided, and loss of financial resources through provision of near-total darkness of power for an economy with over 200 million people.
The power sector reform of 2023 (and the Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu) was to bring some benefits. Among the benefits are the empowerment of states, organisations and individuals to construct, own, or operate undertakings to generate, transmit and distribute electricity as specified by the Act, but the effect of total liberalisation of the sector is yet to be seen. It is expected that the federal government would have broken the national grid to independent regional or state grids and allow each state or region to take full charge of their power infrastructure. However, this is not to be. The federal minister is still daily inundating Nigerians with reasons and excuses for power grid collapses while the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and the distribution companies are carrying on unperturbed with their businesses as usual by billing Nigerians and myriads of struggling organisations without bridle.
Now that vandals are upping their games in the destruction of the grid and making things more difficult in the power sector by the day. If one may ask, who are these vandals? Are they bandits or terrorists, or do we have real industry players sabotaging the grid in order to keep their businesses booming? Knowing how widespread Nigeria is, why is it difficult for the federal government to decentralise the system; or what is it that Abuja wants to prove by holding on to the control of critical sectors that are fundamental to the reshaping of the Nigerian economy?
Why will the central government keep holding unto structural makeup of Nigeria that will not allow it to administer the economy very efficiently? For the federal government to be reforming the economy and still be holding on to control from the centre is a clear sign of self-delusion. Nigeria is a country of nations with different understanding, diverse attitudinal approaches and with assorted growth and development countenances. Should the federal government pretends not to realize this and do something more effective by carrying out a holistic, thorough economic and political reforms that will really uphold true federalism? Hoping that the country will soon be better (by carryout out Abuja-leaning, haphazard reforms) will remain a mere wishful thinking. President Bola Tinubu should please, through true federalism, release Nigerian nations to manage their socio-economic affairs directly by themselves. As things are today, only some Nigerians are living, but they are not letting others live. And this is caused by the federal government’s greed through the imposed unitary system of government.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultan
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