Ibrahim Dooba wrote on his Facebook page

Protesting the lack of electricity in Niger State
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“How is the electricity situation now,” 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 has become relatively stable now in Abuja. For example, I returned home at 8pm yesterday and when I didn’t hear sounds of generators, I knew there wasn’t a power cut. I’m writing this at 9am (more than 12 hours later) and the light hasn’t gone off.

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 2 hours in 48 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 is also available in Bauchi. This is indeed sad. Many parts of Niger State lived in darkness for the entire month of Ramadan.

Paul Mamman wrote a letter in the Daily Trust newspaper a few days ago 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 probably worse than other places!

When we took a poll here 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 is important, those who told us that the protest can degenerate into something unintended. But I don’t think we would have problem getting the support and protection of the security agencies. After all, they suffer what we suffer.

Some people also advised us to first write to Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). So, here’s the letter. (Individuals and organizations should simply write in the comment, “I/we endorse this letter” followed by their name or the name of the organization. With enough endorsements, the entire page would be printed and sent to NERC.)

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Chairman/Chief Executive Officer,
NERC Headquarters, Adamawa Plaza,
Plot 1099, First Avenue, Off Shehu Shagari Way, Central Business District
Abuja, F.C.T (info@nercng.org)

Dear Sir,
THE PEOPLE OF NIGER STATE DO NOT DESERVE THIS DARKNESS
1. We appreciate the work you do, including how you protect the average electricity consumer through your regulation of the sector. We however, have some discontents:
2. The hydro power stations in Niger State provided electricity to Nigerians long before the gas powered plant were built. Still, the nation depends on the hydro stations when generation from other places become spotty. Only recently, the Federal Government admitted that 90% of the nation depends of the electricity generated by the hydro stations in our state.
3. However, while Abuja and other states enjoy relatively stable electricity, Niger State is in darkness. We spent the entire Ramadan in darkness. We are still in darkness. Sometimes we get two hours in 48 hours, sometimes, nothing. Does that sound right to you?
4. Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), which serves us, does not respect us. It refuses to provide us prepaid meters and charges us estimated billing even from those who have paid for the meters – refusing to provide the meters. It has also refused to talk to the people. And AEDC doesn’t announce or explain to the people why we have this problem.
5. Those from whose community gas is produced get special agencies, a ministry, scholarships, etc., while we get nothing. We get darkness.
6. Well, we’ve resolved to no longer accommodate this nonsense. Therefore, we demand only two things:
i. That AEDC should provide prepaid meters for all its customers in Niger State. We realize that those who enjoy electricity are people with prepaid meters because if they don’t give the light, AEDC doesn’t get money from these customers. But they still get money from us (those who have no prepaid meters) through estimated billing.
ii. Whenever electricity is available, we demand to be served first. And when things go bad, it isn’t unreasonable to count us among the first to be considered.
7. Right now, our people are quite angry as a result of this inhuman treatment. We could have channeled that anger inappropriately, but we didn’t do that because we’re not violent people. Therefore, we resolved to do the following:
i. Write a letter to NERC. This is the letter.
ii. We will wait one week for NERC to intervene. If nothing happens, we would stage a peaceful protest in the streets.
iii. We would wait one more week after that. If nothing happens, we would peacefully ask the electricity generating and distribution companies to leave our state. If we can’t take benefit from what is generated from our communities, nobody should.
Yours faithfully,
Yunusa JG Muhammad
Adamu Kenchi
Maikudi Chado
Haruna Musa
Shuaibu M.Z Kolo
The undersigned.

Cc: lalasticlala, seun, mynd44