Friday Sermon: Puertas Del Infierno (The Gates of Hell)

By Babatunde Jose

And do not eat up your property among yourselves for vanities, nor use it as bait for the judges, with intent that ye may eat up wrongfully and knowingly a little of (other) people’ property.’’ (Quran 2:188)

Today’s huthba is focusing on the electricity crisis that now threatens to bring this country under. Already, coupled with the other systemic collapse, the majority of our people are being pushed to the wall. It will just take a little push to trigger a revolution in this country.

And unfortunately, it is those who have that will be the loser; for when the poor have nothing more to eat, they will be forced to eat the rich. This is why those who are in position to warn our leaders should do so now.

It has never been this, bad. Under APC, the Nigerian nation is facing its worst electricity crisis ever. Power outages now last for several days across the country; and whenever there is electricity the quality is embarrassingly poor.

People are now resorting to the age old, traditional lamp, ‘atupa alati’ to light up their homes at night. Even the use of the one stroke generator is becoming increasingly expensive to resort to on a nightly basis. As the cost of fuel is getting increasingly unaffordable. Especially diesel.

People are now being forced to make a choice between buying petrol into the generator or feeding their family with the little they have. Yes, it is that bad. And that is at the individual level. Where two or three are now gathered, the topic is the power situation, just like people in Britain discuss the proverbial British weather.

But that is the least of concern, as the power issue is now pushing towards the imminent collapse of the nation’s economy. From the petty trader selling pure water, to the small welder, the street corner barber and the malam selling soft drinks in the neighbourhood, its complaints galore.

Add the cries of agony and anguish of industry and commerce, is a tale of woe. The matter has gotten so bad that Nigeria now ranks as one of the largest importer of personal generating sets in the world; from the basic ‘ I pass my neighbor’, to industrial giant diesel generators.

A poll conducted in 2013 by NOI Polls Limited for the second quarter of that year revealed that about 130 million representing 81% of our population of 160 million at the time generated their own alternative power. It is worse now as the figure could be 90% of our 200 million population.

DG of the Centre for Management Development revealed that 60 million Nigerians spent N 1.3 Trillion on generators annually. Wow! The area of power is therefore the most prominent infrastructure deficit gap in Nigeria. Our power has been so epileptic that someone has described the Nigerian economy as a ‘generator economy’. In terms of costs, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the National Association of Small-Scale Industries estimated that their members spend an average of $12 million or N7.2Bn per week on self-power generation.

With the price of diesel hovering above 700 per liter, don’t be surprised if the tariff on calls is increased. Multichoice/ DSTV have increased their tariff.

Among other things, former President Olusegun Obasanjo is reported to have blamed his successors, including President Goodluck Jonathan, for being responsible for the rot in the country’s power sector. But you will see is that he too is a ‘dramatis personae’ in the whole power drama. He admitted that a major cause of the problems facing the country is lack of political will on the part of the country’s leaders; he also warned that electricity should not be privatized to friends; which is what actually happened with the sale of GENCOs to the cronies of the administration.

But this is not the full story. Our power problem is the result of the inability of the existing power plants to meet up with the growing demands. This supply / demand gulf is the result of a myriad of problems ranging from obsolete and dilapidated power plants with some as old as 20 years, lack of and very poor maintenance of the plants, and poor managerial efficiency. The feeder pillar in my area is over 30 years old with fault-men endangering their lives to fuse the equipment by joining wires instead of real fuses. This is what you get when you have leaders that lack vision.

Our current power generation is nothing to write home about; a paltry 4,500MW with our per capita electricity usage about 136 kilowatts/hour. This consumption per capita is one of the lowest in the world when compared to per capita electricity usage in Libya, 4,270 KWH; India, 616 KWH; China, 2,944 KWH; Republic of South Africa, 4,803 and Singapore, 8,307 KWH; USA 13,391 KWH.

It is indeed a very sad commentary on the leadership of this country; both past and present. Currently the power has dropped to unprecedented level.’ Lobatan! We are in trouble!

Between 1975 and 1983, the following power projects were developed; the Jebba Dam, Shiroro Dam, and Egbin Power Station. Between 1983 and 1999, there was no single kobo invested in power generation. If anything, the ones that were there were allowed to rot.  Between 1999 and now, over $32billion has been spent on power and nothing to show for it. Yet, in other climes, resources of less amount have been judiciously used to provide reasonable amount of power.

·       The 22,500MW Three Gorges hydroelectric power plant in Yichang, Hubei province, China, is the largest hydropower station in the world, exploiting the water resource of the Yangtze River. The power project was started in 1993 and completed in 2012, it cost the Chinese people only $29Billion.

·       The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant with an installed capacity of 14,000MW ranks as the world’s second largest hydropower plant. The project is located on the Parana River, at the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The facility cost them only $19.6 Billion.

·       The Guri power project, also known as the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric power station, ranks as the world’s third biggest hydroelectric power station, with an installed capacity of 10,200MW. The Venezuelan power facility is located on the Caroni River in the Bolívar State of south-eastern Venezuela.  The Guri power station supplies around 12,900GW/h of energy for Venezuela. It cost the people of Venezuela only about $ 22.5bn

There is no doubt that corruption is built into the cost of our power projects. Yar’Adua government sponsored a probe on the power sector during the Obasanjo years, challenging him for having squandered $13 billion on the project without meaningful results. In the reports presented before the House of Representatives in 2009, it was later established that it was about $3.08 billion that was expended by the Obasanjo government on power generation, instead of the $13Billion they claimed to have spent. What became of the $10billion balance is best left to our collective imagination?

The population of South Africa is 55 million and they generate 45,000 megawatts. Our population today is about 200 million people, and we cannot generate 4,000 megawatts. When Obasanjo came in 1999, he promised to bring the nation out ‘of darkness ‘ in six months. Today we live in what TATALO described as ‘Darkness Invisible’.

However, “By the end of OBJ’s eight-year tenure, power was still not available as promised. It was not because he was unwilling but because the process lacked strategic planning. Money was released but the result was negative. Several imported turbines were later found to be lying idle at the ports or on sites still in the crates they came in.

Some generating stations were designed and built without provision for the gas that would power them. Yet, some were not even built at all, but the equipment’s were imported without stations to house them.  When “Yar’Adua came in, he used two years to ascertain why the huge amounts spent could not fix the power problem. Now Baba has been there for six years, and we are not yet out of the woods, rather things are far worse. When will it ever get better? This is a million-dollar question.

If it took Moses 40 years to get the children of Israel to the ‘promised land’, it did not take 40 years for the leaders of modern Israel to turn the Negev desert into an agricultural wonder. It did not take Singapore forever to become an Asian Tiger, nor for Japan to become an economic miracle after its defeat in the Second World War. South Korea is a modern-day marvel. Dubai and other Emirates in the Gulf are today, tourist destinations and China is the second largest economy in the world. And Qatar is hosting the World Cup!!!  How long must we wait in the ‘Gates of Hell’, before we breathe the air of relief.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Bob Dylan. Blowin in the wind

Nigeria’s population of over 200 million is the largest in Africa. Its GDP growth rate is approximately 7 per cent and it has the highest levels of foreign direct investment in Africa—

You would wonder what the government’s responsibilities are when they have virtually ‘pushed’ their responsibilities back to the people they govern. What are they doing with the huge revenue at their disposal? Allah said:

Allah doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; and when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice: Verily how excellent is the teaching which He giveth you! For Allah is He Who heareth and seeth all things. O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Apostle, and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Apostle, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last day: That is best, and most suitable for final determination.  (Quran 4:58-59)

Nigerians today provide for themselves most basic services; they generate their own electricity, sink boreholes for their water, incinerate their own waste, procure primary health care by patronising the ‘alagbo’ and God knows many other services. We even provide our own roads, as many communities would attest to. These are the hallmarks of a people living at the ‘Gates of Hell. (Matthew 16:18)

Yeah! The ‘gates of hell’ shall not prevail against our collective resolve to create a better life for ourselves and our offspring’s. The time for change is now and we must seek divine assistance against those who are bent on impoverishing our lives and making us wait forever at the ‘Puertas del Infierno.’

But those who break the Covenant of Allah, after having plighted their word thereto, and cut asunder those things which Allah has commanded to be joined, and work mischief in the land; –on them is the Curse; for them is the terrible Home!   (Quran 13:25) 

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.