Nigeria’s power situation poses a big challenge for small businesses – Ovede

A public affairs commentator, Dr. Emmanuel Ovede, says the situation needs to change so that businesses can thrive, describing power as a major driver of development. In this interview with Dr. Ovede believes the states should take the provision of power for citizens seriously. Excepts     

Over the years, small businesses have closed down due to unstable power, is this not part of the reason for the ever increasing population of people without employment?

Yes, actually, power holds 60% of the development of any local government, any state, and any country, because for example, someone doing a welding job when there is constant electricity he can do his work even till midnight. But the cost of fuel and diesel is high now, sometimes they can afford it and someone doing mini-business that sells cold drinks needs power to power her store, so that you can generate cold drinks and all that for people. But when the power is not there, and the cost of buying fuel and diesel is high and, and many don’t have money to get generators and plants to power their business, you see the businesses dying gradually. Moreover, beyond the mini businesses, most major companies need power, investors need power to come and invest in your state. So, without power the investments will not be there. So, power is paramount in any state. Without power, things won’t work well and when there is power, you see the people selling and working till even midnight, and you will even see that while some people are going to sleep, others are waking up. Power is a major driver of growth in any country. We really need to invest in power. It takes nothing to generate power to Nigerians that is what we promised them. It’s a promise we gave them, and I think we should be fulfilling every promise we have made to them. We should make sure we supply power to Nigerians. No one will say they don’t need power. All we should be discussing is how to give our people power because when there is power, they can do anything, they can generate anything, they can put their hand into anything, and then we are safe. We need constant power that is just the simple truth.

There have been arguments by some people that the only solution to these constant power outages in Nigeria is this alternative power, solar and all the rest, but do you think that is a solution in itself?

Actually, it’s not a solution because not everybody has money to generate solar power. Am sorry to say this, generating power is not an individual thing. If the commoner did not have money to get solar, how would they get the power? In some states you can barely get up to 30-40% that can generate their own power, then what happens to the above 60-70% who can’t get solar, who can’t get fuel? And who can’t afford generating sets? That is why you will see that in some families, if somebody puts on a generating set for say two hours, you see people rushing there with their rechargeable torch, their phones, they just want to recharge, because they have been kept in the dark. It’s only a few people that have the power to generate their own power, not everybody. You may have the capacity to install 10 million in your house, but what of the commoner who does nothing, who is doing their milling business? Do you want them to close the business and go and get solar? No, I think this is the work of the government, and this is what the government should take as a responsibility. This is the work of our leaders; this is the work of the governors of various states to take it as a responsibility, because I don’t see any reason why the state governor will not be able to generate power for their people. We receive federal allocation and sometimes internally generated. So, what does it really take for us to generate power for our people? Sometimes, you see political leaders install solar worth N200 million in their houses, what about the commoners? We are talking about the commoners; we are not talking about you that have money to put solar in their house. You are not here to serve yourself, you are here to serve the people, and the people are the commoner that you need to attend to. You must attend to their needs, and I think power is the number one of their needs. So, I don’t see any reasons why any state governor will not generate power for their people, provide a standby plant that will power the state. Like my state Delta for example, we have three senatorial districts; I don’t see any reason why we should not have steady power supply. We are generating oil every day, gas every day, barrels of oil is leaving our state, and we are receiving a lot of allocation from the federal, I don’t see any reason why from one year the state governor who said it’s not going to generate, there’s no money  to generate power for the state, so I think there is enough money to generate power for the state, they should go for it, and they should build it, they shouldn’t just sell it, because the people need the power, they need it, so this is beyond, this is beyond individual, the government should take full responsibility of their people, they are called to serve their people, and power is one of the service. They should take responsibility for their duty; they should provide for their people so they can continue to do their business. When there is power, people won’t be complaining about the economy. When you give them N100,000, they’re going to manage it. They will get a fridge, buy drinks, buy water, cool the water and drinks and people will begin to come and buy. They will sell and get some money to take care of their families, and as far they are pushing on gradually, they don’t care whether the government is collecting billions or not, but when there is no power, what do you expect? They will keep looking at the government. It’s the duty of the government to serve their people, and light is included in the service.

In the Niger Delta, you have the NDDC, there is the ministry, and there have been other interventions, yet they still grapple with the issue of power. Some have said that some have said that the states in the region should be able to generate their own electricity since the gas is there. What is your take in this regard?  

The NDDC have not been working according to their mandate. They have left the real thing and they are doing what is not necessary. If I am to advise them, I will say they should go and do the needful, what they are doing is not the needful; it’s not what the people want. Fine, sometimes they are constructing roads and it’s okay, but that is still not enough. How many people have money to buy cars to travel from Delta or Edo state to River state, or to cross River state? How many people have the money to buy a car to travel? There are people who don’t travel from year to year. They have not finished taking their two, three square meals a day; you want them to pay ten, fifteen thousand traveling from Edo state. All their desire is to take care of their immediate family needs. So, the NDDC and other interventions in the region are not working. If they are working one of their paramount targets should be to give the people of the region power because we are producing oil and gas. A lot is leaving the country, a lot is leaving the state, a lot is leaving the region. In fact, the Niger Delta is part of the reason why the country is surviving today; I won’t be scared of saying it anyway. It’s just some selfish leaders that have sat on the development of the region. It’s not the President; no one should blame the President. Allocations are going to these agencies; money is allocated to these ministries, so why can’t they use the money exactly the way it is allocated. They are doing some minor job while the real thing is undone. You find that all the money being allocated to the ministries is nowhere to be found. They will leave the commoner on the street suffering, and this is the reason robbery will not stop, this is the reason yahoo boys will not stop, we just keep blaming the boys unnecessarily, because our leaders have failed us, so the boys have no option but to take another step. They just want to take a fast step to make sure they do what they want to do. They want to take care of themselves and their families, and to make matters worse, there is no power to run other businesses. Let’s even keep the ministry and agency aside, if the MDAs fail, why can’t the state governors attend to the needs of their people. They should spread the allocations to all the zones. If you can’t go for the full state, split it. Like Delta State, you can split it into three. Do batch one in six months, do batch two in six months, and let’s do batch three in six months. So far you put in the budget and you are working on it, the other people will be patient until you’re done with the number one batch, go to number two and then go to the third batch, they were going to enjoy the power, I think if the intervention agencies can’t attend to us we can attend to ourselves. It’s just like somebody telling you that he doesn’t have food to give to you; I say because the person doesn’t have food to give to you, you want to die of hunger, when you can actually generate food for yourself. You can look at the person and say to hell with you and generate food for yourself, I think this is what the state should be doing rather than doing nothing. There are things that are needed for each of these states to do that will boost the government. We are blaming the federal government, we are blaming the President, but allocation has been sent to these states, there is a ministry, there are ministers, there are Senators, Rep members representing the states. Everything can’t be stockpiled in the hands of the President, he is one man, not twenty presidents, only one president, who sits over 36 states including the FCT. Why are there governors, senators, ministers and the rest, it’s for them to see to the needs of their state. The President is not going to see to the need of your state, sometimes the president might not know that there is power in that state, sometimes the president might not know that there is power in Delta State, sometimes the president might not know that there is power in Bayelsa state, Rivers State, Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Abia State, Enugu State, he has given you all it takes to take care of your people. You don’t expect the president to come and call you and sit you down like his son and say son, this money I’m giving to you, you’re going to buy shoes from it, and you’re going to buy a T-shirt from it so that you can look good. The president expects, that’s why you become a governor, a senator and a minister, you know what to do, you know the needs of your people, that you have to take care of the needs of the people. So, don’t expect the president to sit you down and say you must do this, you must do that, it means you don’t know your work and the president is doing your work and it’s not done anyway. They should do the needful and stop hoping on the various intervention agencies. They should work to ensure they provide power because when there is power, the states will progress. If the people are doing well, if their business is moving, they will pay tax not to their family, not to the U.S. but to the state. So, if the people are not doing well, how do you expect them to pay tax? Should they remove their hair from their nose and pay tax? No! They must do well for them to be able to pay the tax. The state should do the needful; they are also collecting money for the needful they are doing. It’s like a payback time. I give you N20,000 and every month I’m getting 2,000 from you. You will find out that in one year, you have collected more than N20,000 because it will generate the purse as well. So, they should go and do the needful.