Testing patriotism of DisCos on Nigeria at 60 – AN EDITORIAL

Nigeria’s Diamond Independence Anniversary as it clicks 60 tomorrow October 1, 2020 is significant to everybody that has a blood-in-vein that he shares with the country.

The Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to whom the licence to supply power for citizens’ use was issued are not exempted. This is because, they are able to do busuness here because Nigeria is Nigeria and has made it good for them although, to many Nigerians, the private owners have performed far below expectation as they continue to do business like they are concerned only with making money even when they are aware they provide no light.

Tomorrow Thursday is October 1, 2020 when the nation’s all-focused 60th Independence Anniversary will be celebrated. It is therefore a day that, if these DisCos want to prove they are not from the moon but are also human beings living within the same Nigerian community as others, they should make light available to every home especially as the President of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, will be broadcasting to the nation at 7 o’clock in the morning.

It has now become the feeling of many that those Nigerians who bought the power assets during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) era did not buy them with good intentions of making the system work. They are believed to have bought them for a kill so that their own imported generators business would grow to the detriment of the nation and happiness of its good people.

Those, who have this feeling in them, are vindicated when it comes to mind sometimes that for the first three months of President Buhari in office in 2015, the DisCos, which had failed Nigerians before his coming, made light regularly available to Nigerians at 2,600 megawatts for fear of the popular body language, before they began to change because they discovered the President had made up his mind to be Converted Democrat and not as the soldier that he was in 1984/1985.

Today, the President had done the part of government having improved power generation up to over 7,000 megawatts. He aided the DisCos to meter their customers yet they are private owners in business. Nigerians continue to experience bad power situation.

Worst they do not even have to use light before they are charged skyrockedly (crazy bill), a trade that cannot but incure the wrath of the Almighty. It is an evil that man in business has been doing to fellow man in cunsummer class in Nigeria without Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) able to do anything to help the people against their exploiters.

Tomorrow is key. Will these DisCos make Nigerians feel great at Independence Anniversary as Nigeria is 60 or not? Only the time will tell.