Worsening electricity situation

MOST people I know don‘t seem to sleep well nowadays. And the cause of the collective insomnia we are experiencing as Nigerians is the worsening power situation in the country.

No matter how positive you are that the nation would start to enjoy constant electricity, the reality is that Nigeria has failed abjectly in addressing one of the most basic needs of contemporary life.

Wherever you go, bloodshot eyes – meaning lack of sleep – stare back at you because the unusual heat wave – the temperature is as high as 39ºC at night – is being compounded by the lack of electricity (whether in the day or night time).

In spite of all the promises of the Federal Government to deliver on 6,000MW of electricity by December 2009, and 10,000MW by March 2010, power generating sets have taken over the Nigerian environment, worsening the deadly fuel crisis.

As at Thursday, media reports suggested that the national generation had dropped to 2,400MW, from the dismal peak of 3,700 last December, and 2,700MW two weeks ago.

There was even a more ominous report that there might be a total collapse this weekend as Shell tries to evacuate the condensate blocking its gas pipelines that feed the thermal power stations.

Even the rich are feeling the sting of power failure. When you look close to you, not even many rich people can afford to provide their electricity needs by running the kind of generating sets that will power the air conditioners throughout the night, and tackle the heat successfully.

Small-scale business has been in trouble for a long time because of the failure of the government to address this make or break issue in modern Nigeria.

The cruellest thing about the situation is that as the need of the country increases, output declines.

On Thursday, the government gave assurances for the umpteenth time to deliver 10,000MW before June, but I think it is time to call Lanre Babalola‘s bluff.

Nigerians are simply tired of the old, worn-out excuses from the centre. Definitely, a new approach has to be adopted, and even a new set of people given charge of the Ministry of Power.

As I said earlier on this page, the ministry and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have to be proactive, and transparent, and have to do more than they are doing now.

One, the minister needs to institutionalise a weekly news conference to flesh out the details of the state of the sector to Nigerians.

We must be constantly aBosom  of what is being done, when it is to be delivered, the level of generation, the time for repairs, and the expected addition to the national grid, that is, on a weekly basis.

As a nation, we have been too docile over the criminal neglect of the industry for far too long. Now is the time to exact concrete achievements from the bumbling people at the centre.

Part of what we can do is put the electricity issue on the front burner in the next general elections, especially at the centre. Any party – or candidate – running for Aso Rock must detail an exhaustive plan on how it would tackle the power conundrum.

We should start to reject any potential government that cannot tackle the demons selling generator; that can only make excuses that saboteurs are preventing the government from attaining constant electricity supply; and that puts generator purchase/expenses in the federal budget figures.

For without electricity, every other thing pales into insignificance in modern life; and any administration that can‘t deliver on this is patently a failure (I assume that all past administrations have failed then).

Ayinke House in need of makeover

ARING for the health needs of

the estimated 18m people in Lagos State is certainly a huge task, especially in a country that has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios in the world.

In its own way, the Raji Fashola Administration has made strides in the health sector, the rotating free treatment in the local governments being a good example of addressing the health needs of the people at the grass roots level.

But even then, the state government still has a mountain to climb if it is to be adjudged a performer in the health sector, which is a key area in any community.

A visit last Sunday – I was on spiritual duty – to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, which has a major section reserved for child delivery services – otherwise called Ayinke House in honour of the mother of Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, who donated the facility years ago – provoked all the sad memories of the rot in the hospital.

The long-standing problem of lack of enough bed spaces is still being aggravated by the terrible state of the basic facilities.

What you find in a hospital that should shine with cleanliness is rot: broken down window nets, which allows the invasion of mosquitoes and other insects; fungi on the walls; and the intermittent odour from the mortuary that is nearby.

The army of mosquitoes spells stress for the newly-delivered mothers and their babies, and something needs to be urgently done to address this anomaly in a top-class health facility. You can imagine a newborn baby going home with traces of malaria fever because the nets of the hospital are not fixed.

All this in a country reputed to have one of the highest maternal/infant mortality rates in the world.

Not only this, the food that is being served to the new moms is rather too small.

Though I‘m not a doctor, I‘m sure that somebody who has just lost so much blood during childbirth will need huge replenishment.

And if my memory serves me well, our sister publication – Saturday PUNCH – ran a story last year detailing the rot in the hospital, so I wonder why the situation has not been addressed almost six months after the story.

Surely, things can get only better for Ayinke House.