The Burden of Power: A Nation’s Struggle with Electricity
Across the country, electricity consumers are shouldering the heavy cost of funding critical infrastructure for private distribution companies, often at great personal expense. Many recount agonising tales of repeated payments, erratic power supply, and a system that leaves households and businesses paying more for increasingly unreliable electricity.
For over a year, some parts of the Ogidi community in Anambra State lived in prolonged darkness after their electricity transformer broke down, forcing families and small businesses to rely on costly alternatives. What should have been a basic public utility became a collective burden, as community members had no choice but to contribute their personal funds to restore power.
A 41-year-old Lagos-based professional, Jideofor Ozoekwe, told Saturday PUNCH how the reality of this challenge followed him even while away from home. He said he was in Lagos when he received a call, which he initially assumed was from a client he was working for; instead, it was a fellow townsman calling with an urgent message about their community’s electricity situation.
“I am just coming from your house now, and your mum said I should call you,” the fellow townsman told him, explaining the urgency of the situation. “Our transformer got spoiled, and we are contributing money to fix it. We are going from house to house to collect the money, and your family’s share has not been paid. Each household is to contribute N7,000 for cables and other electrical parts. The neighbouring communities that we share the same transformer with are also contributing,” he said.
According to Ozoekwe, this has been the situation in the country, adding that when the transformer got faulty earlier, they stayed in darkness for over a year. “We wrote letters and reminders to the Enugu DISCO, but there was no response. Later, they said they had applied for a new transformer for us and that we had to wait for it to be supplied, or we (consumers) should buy one. Days went by, weeks went by, and three months later, we were still in darkness.”
“It was a terrible situation. Businesses that depended on electricity were packing up. Barbers’ shops and battery chargers that depended on the power supply were frustrated. Those who could afford power-generating sets bought them, while others who couldn’t suspended operations. That was our situation until the letter we wrote to the governor yielded results, and a new transformer was brought to our community. The transformer serves three different communities – Ndiagu, Ire, and Isieke. That was how we got reconnected to the grid. The DISCO did nothing about it,” he said.
Prolonged Blackouts and Financial Strain
Gloomy, prolonged blackouts have become common, often lasting months or even years due to faulty transformers, damaged lines, or a lack of maintenance. In addressing this challenge, communities frequently organise fundraisers, going door to door to levy households to restore electricity. This shouldn’t be happening in a country where there is government, he lamented.
Ironically, even after contributing to fix critical infrastructure, consumers continue to bear additional costs of installation and crazy bills. Ozoekwe lamented that families not only pay to repair transformers and purchase cables but are also required to pay for meters and monthly electricity bills. “This was a situation I faced, and I still pay heavily for it. We pay for meters and still pay bills. Unfortunately, the government would allow the exploitation of the masses by a few individuals after privatising the power sector. The telecom sector is standing on its own; why won’t the power sector be made to work?” he added.
Ozoekwe’s frustration reflects a wider sentiment among Nigerians who feel overburdened by the cost of accessing basic amenities in the country. While DISCOs are responsible for distributing power, many consumers argue that they are unfairly made to shoulder the cost of infrastructure repairs and upgrades.
For affected communities, the implications go beyond inconvenience. Small businesses suffer losses, students struggle to study at night, and households spend more on fuel for generators, further stretching already limited incomes.
The Case of Chima Okolo
In a similar development, Chima Okolo, a landlord at Saidu, Onikan, Ogijo, Sagamu in Ogun State, had not had electricity in his area for the past two months. According to the father of four, he has been spending almost half of his salary running a generator because their transformer is faulty, saying that he had reported to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, but the company did nothing.
Not knowing how many more months to wait before they fix the transformer, since the IBEDC had remained unconcerned about their plight, they started contributing money to buy a new transformer for the IBEDC. “Our transformer has been bad for the past three months. We called on the IBEDC, but there is nothing they have done. We are currently contributing N5,000 per house to buy a transformer and other equipment that the DISCO will claim as its own after supply.”
“We are over 100 houses on the street, and this will amount to N500,000. We are going to be investing in the IBEDC without any form of compensation or return on investment. We will buy all the equipment needed, and we will still pay the DISCO officials to connect us back.”
He noted that the most annoying part of the exploitation was the transition to Band A, which he described as “criminal Band A,” that was supposed to give them more electricity but never made any impact; rather, the power situation deteriorated in the area.
The Broader Systemic Issues
The exploitation of electricity consumers in Nigeria has become a long-standing feature of the system, one that the government has, for years, appeared to tolerate while offering little in terms of effective solutions. For decades, consumers have been overburdened with exorbitant bills for services often not rendered, while also being compelled directly or indirectly to fund and provide critical power infrastructure.
Power stakeholders said even when the government fully controlled the sector under the National Electric Power Authority and later Power Holding Company of Nigeria, consumers were made to contribute to the purchase of transformers, cables, and other essential equipment. Findings revealed that this trend has persisted, and arguably worsened, under the current privatised structure, where distribution companies are expected to invest in infrastructure and deliver improved services in exchange for customer payments.
Instead, electricity consumers said the reverse is the case, as they bear the cost of procuring and installing infrastructure for profit-driven entities, yet still face inflated tariffs, erratic supply, and, in some cases, disconnection from a grid they helped finance.
Calls for Accountability and Reform
Following this mass exploitation by the DISCOs, and what was described as the failure of the privatisation exercise, the National Assembly discussed the possible revocation of licences and undoing what has been done in the power and oil sectors, among others. According to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, electricity and basic utilities were once provided to communities regularly, often with public funding. However, he noted that during the privatisation process, these assets were handed over to distribution companies, yet they never paid a single naira.
A former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress and current senator, Adams Oshiomhole, lamented the situation, which he described as ‘legalised looting.’ He shared how he purchased a transformer for his Abuja house, paid for its installation, handed it over to DisCos, and still pays service fees every month.
Consumer rights advocates’ position highlights the need for transparent business dealings between DISCOs and electricity consumers without passing the burden of commercial losses to unsuspecting consumers.
An accountant and a business consultant, Dapo Ogundipe, told our correspondent that under normal circumstances, consumers should not be responsible for building infrastructure for DISCOs, adding that the entire privatisation process was fundamentally flawed.
