A MUST READ: Lagosians Groan As Power Shortage Bites

As electricity generation and distribution figures continue to dip, residents of Lagos continue to lament the losses they incur.

* Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola yet to redeem his promise on Electricity

According to a recent report from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, the country currently generates less 4000 megawatts of electricity.

Lagos, the nation’s commercial hub gets less than 700 of the number.

 As at January this year, there was a sharp fall in power generation from 6,668 to just about 3,764 for the consumption of Nigeria’s population estimated at over 170 million.

 Emem Edet, who retails soft drinks at Okota area of Lagos, expressed his bitterness at the poor electricity supply in the area, which she said has adversely affected his business.

“We get less than four hours of electricity here daily. Sometimes, we don’t even get at all. That has affected my business because I can’t refrigerate my drinks and unfortunately, I haven’t got money to buy a big generating set.

“Most of my customers have gone elsewhere where they can get cold drinks. Business has been really bad in this part of town,” she lamented.

Power supply in Ketu to Ikorodu, another major Lagos suburb, has not faired better.

And residents and business owners in the area are bitter about it.

Ayobami Lawal resides near Agric Bus Stop in Ikorodu where power supply is said to be abysmally poor.

 She complained that her children have rashes all over their body as a result of heat.

“At night especially, they can’t sleep. The weather is hot and in the absence of electricity, the two of my kids have heat rashes and fever, these have cost me a fortune to treat at the hospital. Government should please try to fix this power problem,” she opined.

Similar complaints of shortage of power supply have been reported in Obalende, Ijaniki, Kirikiri and other towns in Lagos.

In most of those places, reports have come mainly from families, business people, factory owners and others.

They aver that due to the paucity of electricity supplied to their area, they make effort to supply power to their own businesses and this has been cost intensive, thus eating deep into their business investment.

 They implore the federal government and Governor Babatunde Fashola to improve on the electricity supply rate so as to prevent their businesses from crumbling.

 Small scale and medium scale entrepreneurs complain the most because according to them, the little profit they make is expended on buying and maintaining generating sets.

 Indeed, the government of Lagos State through it Lagos State Electricity Board has made modest attempt to generate power for the consumption of Lagos residents.

 The state had planned to generate 50 megawatts of electricity from waste last year.

The agency has announced they were strengthening their Independent Power Plants so as to increase power supply in the state.

 Despite these efforts, many Lagos residents still complain that they are yet to feel the state government impact in the area of electricity supply.

 “I hear and read about all the policy statements that the Lagos State government has been making concerning electricity generation and supply.

“But none has borne fruits yet. That is why at night, it appears as if the whole city is in loop of darkness.

This is not Lagos as the former capital of Nigeria and now the nation’s economic capital. We must redress this quickly,” Tunde Balogun, a civil servant said, when asked about his opinion on the state government’s effort at generating electricity.

 Nigeria’s electricity crisis has been on for a long time. Last year, the federal government unbundled the electricity generation and distribution chain and privatized the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

 “Gas is not coming, and without this, the power plants cannot operate optimally.

“Gas supply is very important to the Nigerian power sector because almost 80 per cent of the power plants in the country are gas-fired.

 “Inadequate gas supply is a big problem for Nigeria. Even with the private sector investment; if there is no enough gas supply, there will still be problems,” Managing Director of Korea Electricity Company, a technical experts to the new power companies, Mr. Gyoo Chull was recently quoted to have said.

With the new operators’ complaint of gas shortage at the power stations, it is now unclear when Lagosians, and Nigerians at large, would experience an interrupted power supply in their homes and for their businesses.

Source: Legit.ng