Niger State Avengers?

“How is the electricity situation?” I asked our security man when I arrived Abuja. “E don they stable now o,” he said.  Knowing that I just left Minna, where we enjoyed (or suffer) two hours of light out of 48 hours, I thought I didn’t hear him correctly. But he was right.  Electricity had become […]

“How is the electricity situation?” I asked our security man when I arrived Abuja.
“E don they stable now o,” he said. 
Knowing that I just left Minna, where we enjoyed (or suffer) two hours of light out of 48 hours, I thought I didn’t hear him correctly.
But he was right.  Electricity had become relatively stable in Abuja.  For example, I returned home at 8pm of the next day and when I didn’t hear sounds of generators, I knew there wasn’t a power cut.  And the light didn’t go off until the hour of ten the next morning (more than 14 hours later).
So I thought it must have also improved in Minna and called home to check: “It only got worse,” my wife said, “since you left [two days ago] we’ve not seen anything.”  This means that rather than improving, it got worse – from two hours in 48 hours to zero in 48.  And we share the same distribution company (AEDC) with Abuja.
But that is not all.  My wife told me that electricity was also available in Bauchi.  That was last week.
This week, Dr. Umar Abdullahi visited me from United Arab Emirates and spent two nights with my family in Minna.  He couldn’t hide his astonishment: “I visited Kaduna and there was regular power supply.  I also visited Lagos and Auchi and there was power from the grid.  However, in Niger State, host of three hydro power stations, I’ve not seen a flicker of light except from generators.  You’re not a ‘power state,’ you’re a powerless state,” he concluded.
This is indeed sad.  Many parts of Niger State lived in total darkness for the entire month of Ramadan. 
Paul Mamman, from Niger State, wrote a letter in Daily Trust last week where he asked all the right questions.  I agree with him.
The logic is simple.  If the government acknowledges that 90% of the country depends on the electricity generated from Niger State – especially when the gas stations can’t generate – then the community which provides this 90% deserves some consideration.  And if you can’t give them any priviledge, at least they shouldn’t be worse than everyone else.  Right now, Niger State is worse than other places!
But this is not only unfair, it is also dangerous.  When we took a poll on Facebook to determine whether we should go out and protest this wickedness, the majority who voted said we should.  I still get phone calls today by people asking “when are we going out for the protest!”
Although calls by those who urge caution and told us that the protest can degenerate into something unintended is important, a street protest appears to be an attractive option for many. But I don’t think we would have any problem getting the support and protection of the security agencies.  After all, they are subjected to the same suffering.
Some people also advised us to first write to Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).  So, we wrote the letter, posted it on Facebook and asked people to respond.  One hundred percent of those who did, endorsed the letter.  Even people from outside Niger State agree that we don’t deserve this.
If the people of Niger State were as silly as the Niger Delta Avengers, they would have visited violence on electricity facilities already for the fact that they don’t take any benefit from the electricity generated from their communities – at least not more than others. In fact, we get less than others. If we can have electricity in Abuja, Kaduna, Bauchi, Auchi and Lagos, why can’t we have it in Minna or Bida?
And in the case of petroleum money, only few thieving leaders and some civil servants get comfort from it; but everyone – connected to the grid- benefits from electricity from Niger State. We power the Nigerian economy.  But we are powerless ourselves.  Yet, we’re not destroyers.
However, as I find myself in front of the protest, I fear that things may get out of hand.  Only this morning, I read a press statement by a youth organization calling for their own protest.  We agreed that we’ll wait one week for Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to intervene after we’ve sent our letter.  Obviously the organization couldn’t wait for us, because everybody is angry.  Therefore, those concerned should do something before things get ugly.  Before frustrated youths form Niger State Avengers. Then it would be too late.
Already, when we resolved to call for a peaceful protest if NERC does nothing after one week, many responded that a peaceful protest  was conditional upon a quick, favourable intervention, if not, they said “we’re going to f*ck them up!”