₦airaland Forum

I believe many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief when sometime in January,the minister of power told some journalists that Nigerians are already paying more money when compared to the electricity that is supplied by the DISCOS.He therefore foreclosed any increment in the present tariff regime till a time when power supply improves.
It is therefore incredible and the very height of deceit to see almost a hundred percent increment in the EEDC's electricity billing for the month of February,2015.The transformer that serves one branch of our printing press at Old Cemetery Road in Onitsha Anambra State packed up on 2nd January,2015;but that did not stop EEDC from presenting a bill of more than 15,000naira for that month's total darkness which is still ongoing.
These DISCOS and their supposed regulatory body (NERC) have victimized the average citizens to a state of utter helplessness.
These power companies seem to be so much in a hurry to recoup the 500million naira which they donated to the PDP campaign raiser.
For how long will Nigerians continue to be played and made to pay for darkness?
Why hasnt any gas pipeline vandal been caught,paraded on television and prosecuted considering the impact of their sabotage on Nigerians?
Where are the pre-paid meters which EEDC promised to deliver to their customers by February,2015?
Was the minister trying to play on the intelligence of Nigerians with that patronizing statement after giving approval for tariff increase or do the DISCOS have the right to increase the tariff whenever it suits them?
Why does the president keep on insulting the sensitivity Nigerians with claims that he has delivered on his promise on power?
The present government remains its own greatest enemy because no reasonable human being will make any sacrifice for a government which has shown so much deceit and contempt for its citizens,even with elections around the corner.
What will then happen IF the present government secures a second tenure? i shudder to think about it.
As at today;Saturday the 28th day of February 2015,the EEDC gift of darkness continues in most parts of Onitsha.
It is really a hopeless situation.

It darkness galore here in Onitsha.It is quite an unfortunate situation;what with all the promises of stable power supply.

What better goodwill could have been given to us this Xmas than power supply that would have been adequate to preserve what foodstuff we managed to buy for the Xmas.
It has been darkness galore for the greater part of yesterday and all through today in most parts of Onitsha.
This government is a real disappointment to its citizens.
I want fellow Nairalanders to kindly give their location and relate how they have been coping with the deplorable situation of power this Xmas.

Time was exactly 1.13pm,i received a call from a caller via the this mobile number: 07032300290.His exact words were "your people were a in accident",i immediately recalled reading sometime about the Federal road safety accident victims scam on Nairaland.
I had to give him a piece of my mind and let him know that he was on a long thing.
I thank Nairaland for keeping us in the know and assisting in exposing these societal ills.I might have fallen for the scam if not for the awareness that was created by Nairaland and the good Nigerian that posted that topic.I want to contribute my quota by advising anyone that receives a call from this number or any other number who claims to be an FRSC officer to first of all do all within his or her limits to ask some relevant questions that will expose that caller as a potential fraudster.
Finally,i implore the Nigerian police,SSS and civil defense to go after these fraudsters to expose them and save the honest and hard working Nigerians form their menace or was that not the essence of the much publicized SIM registration

No light in onitsha and environs since yesterday.

Obese

It has been really pathetic in onitsha and environs.Lets see if the jinx will be broken.I reserve further comments till then.

blink182: he could barely juggle the ball twice in a row. The annoying part was when the guy on his extreme left picked the ball and started juggling effortlessly-you do not outshine your boss. If he's fired I won't be surprised.

U ar correct cos i watched it on NTA.He couldnt even juggle the twice in a row but that's by the way.How i wish he can fix our electricity problems cos then it wont matter if he can juggle d ball or not cos Nigerians will give him their applause.

The situation in Onitsha is pathetic to say the least and i consider the current power minister a disappointment.His tenure is full of excuses & buckpassing.Let me see anyone that wil ask me to vote 4 Jonathan if the situation persists.

Sincere 9gerian: This is not excuses. It's the reality. Until we build our generation capacity to something far far above the national requirement, this sort of unfortunate incidents will continue to happen. Do you really expect the nation's generation capacity to hold steady at 4,000 MW or whatever level it is currently? Its impossible. These are man-made machines, fed with gas through pipelines. Anything can go wrong at any point along the chain. You cannot be generating only 4,000MW and hope that everything works perfectly from day to day.

My position is that until we build our generation capacity to something above 20,000 MW, these flip flops and short fall will continue to occur. Unfortunately, 20,000 MW cannot be achieved within a short period, atleast not this year.

When the private sector takes over the distribution system, alot of bottlenecks will be cleared. Notwithstanding the temporary shortfall in generation, alot of people still dont have power because of distribution challenges. The privatisation will solve most of the issues in the distribution chains. Even the power plants that'll also be transferred into private hands will be better managed. The NIPP and Independent power plants that will be added to the grid by late this year or early next year will boost generation. A combination of all of the above will definitely make things better.

Meanwhile, the gas pipeline damage reported on this thread is only temporary set back. In a week or two, it'll be fixed. Should we them pull down the whole house because a gas pipeline problem was reported?

This administration took the credit when there was a report of a 3 weeks stable power in parts of Awka,but wont take responsibility in the current situation.And here you are ranting about the opposition APC when all we ask is that we be provided with the services we pay for.Ur attitude is simply antithetical to progress.

About one week ago,there was a thread posted by a nairalander celebrating three weeks of steady power supply in a part of Awka,Anambra State.Many people testified to the three weeks of uninterrupted power supply while many were adamant that the power supply,though improved was still not steady.
The president,Governor Peter Obi and Senator Chris Ngige were all jostling to be take the glory for that noble achievement with the president listing it as one of the gains of his power roadmap.
The purpose of this post is to find out the current state of public power supply in that part of Awka.
This is because after i gave my testimony about the improved power supply in Onitsha,it has nosedived terribly.
I want to know if there is still uninterrupted power supply in any part of Awka because i am seriously thinking about relocating my business to that part if the answer is yes.
Secondly,if the power situation has nosedived like that of Onitsha,who takes the blame??
I suggest we hold the president,Peter Obi and Chris Ngige responsible because they took the credit for the improvement.
Finally,let me state clearly that a lot of Nigerians are gradually losing hope of there being any stability in public power supply and i boldly say that i am a young South Easterner whose business has been so negatively affected by the poor state of power supply that i,and like minded Igbos will never vote again out of sentiments and suffer the consequences as we are presently doing.
A word is enough for the wise.

I guess it was all make belief cos most parts of Onitsha have been in darkness for about 12hrs now.PHCN took d light around 10am today 30/7/2013,its now past 10pm & stil no light yet.Government magic.

There has truely been an improvement here in Onitsha but to say power is uninterrupted 4 3weeks is a big lie.It is an average of about 16 hours daily.Let us wait 4 d dry season b4 passing our judgement.There is even no light as i am typing this.

kenifeh: This is the state of the Nigeria educational system. People should learn to read and understand before talking anyhow in public forums. Wole Soyinka was referring to the rich resource endowment of the Niger-Delta, and he never called Patience Jonathan a hippopotamus. Read the context in which that statement was made. He was indirectly saying that oil, which is the main issue causing the crises, is not the only rich resource of the region. People should look into the waters for solution, "the kingdom of God is within and around us".

U ar wrong mr lecturer.By the way it is 'fora' and not 'forums'.

Are these youths & their sponsors not burning the bridge for the president?How will Jonathan campaign in the North?Let's wait & see.

About a week ago,there was a post asking nairalander their views on the current state of power supply in their various abode.A lot of positive testimonies were given,which gave the impression that there was tremendous improvement in the performance of PHCN in the area of power generation and transmission to the various parts of the country with some testifying that they were enjoying 24hours of electricity supply.
I reside in Onitsha,Anambra State and i have to admit that there was some improvement in the supply of power in many parts of Anambra State for about two weeks.
That notwithstanding,i was reluctant to join the fray in celebrating the improvement in public power supply because of the previous experience whereby power supply improves only to become abismal within a short while.
It is therefore unfortunate that the pessimists like myself have all been proven right with the current outage which has lasted for about one week.
What makes the current outage most shameful was the initial buckpassing amongst the various authorities under the Federal Government which necessitated the minister of finance issuing a statement from China exonorating her ministry from the current situation which was allegedly caused by her failure to release funds to the power ministry.Her detailed statement prove that her ministry has released adequate funds to the power ministry.
I want someone who is in the know to enlighten us on the cause of the current power outage.Was it caused by the alleged sabotage of the gas pipelines by vandals who are trying to armtwist the federal government into renewing the pipeline protection contract which was awarded to ex-militants?
It will be tantamount to the whole country being held hostage by ex-militants if the decision by the federal government has become an albatross to the citizenry as a whole.
I need someone to enlighten me because so far,i am not impressed with the situation of things vis a vis the electoral promises of Mr president with emphasis on power supply.

Kudos to sincere 9igerian,prof corruption and Omonnakoda.The quality of your engagement on this thread has been very cerebral,impressive and enlightening.We need more of this sort of engagement which is devoid of name calling & tribal sentiments in nairaland.

This may be a strategy to draw those terriorists who are still at large into a net since they seem to value their wives and kids.I believe those women & children will be under constant surveilance with the hope that they can lead the security agents to their fathers & brother haramites.

I believe that these snatched cars might be part of the plan B of these terriorists.The security forces had better beware that these are not just random events.

These warmongers are actually ostracising Jonathan & making his presidency seem irresponsible. This is what happens when criminals are given more recognition & governmemt patronage than the law abiding citizens.

baynix: Our Traditional Ruler here in Irewole LGA of Osun State has warned these rascals not to hunt people to pay their bills for 2 months or so!!

No light for weeks now.. and these thieves be expecting us to pay!!

What sacrifice is greater than one paying for a service he or she did not get? The increased PHCN tariff coupled with the poor or zero supply of power to many parts of Nigeria has grounded many businesses.For how long should we continue like this?

For more than eight days now,the residents of many parts of Onitsha have been in darkness for some reasons which PHCN did not even bother to share with the residents of these areas which include,Oguta road,Old cemetry rd,New market rd,Old market rd etc. It is a known fact that these areas have a high concentration of private businesses and artisans.One can therefore imagine the impact of this outage on these individuals who took government's advice of self employment.It is worthy of mention that this has become a regular occurance with light only being restored when PHCN wants to share their monthly over estimated bills to residents. This lasts for the few days it takes for the residents of these areas to pay these outrageous bills,afterwhich the era of darkness returns. I am using this medium to appeal to those concerned to endeavor to restore power to these area. I also want to sound a note of warning to PHCN officials:they dare not send any electric billing to any of the affected areas until power is restored if they do not want the pent up frustrations of these long suffering masses to be unleashed on them.ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Darius2000: We will never enjoy stable power as long as we continue paying for epileptic supply. NEPA doesn't have any reasons to up its supply, knowing fully well that the masses will pay even if there isn't power at all.

You are absolutely correct my brother.Government has to demonstrate its commitment to ameliorating the current sufferings of Nigerians in the hands of PHCN by ensuring that every Nigerian gets the prepaid meter at an affordable price.How does the minister want the citizens to reason with government when it is a win-win situation for government.Nebo's honesty can only be appreciated if he goes further to do what needs to be done to ensure that the monthly exploitation of Nigerians by PHCN by way of estimated billing or other unjust charges is stopped.

It does not have to end with the Minister telling us that government cannot for the umpteenth time fulfill its promise.You also have to look into the issue of struggling Nigerians being exploited financially on a monthly basis for electricity that is not supplied by PHCN.Here in Onitsha,it is darkness galore for the inhabitants and we still pay the over estimated PHCN bills at the end of every month.I think that a responsible government should consider their citizens if they really desire to earn their trust and understanding.Until this is done,the ordinary citizen sees this government as one that is making them pay for government's inefficiency and greed.

Sincere 9gerian: I dont really understand your point. There's nothing to suggest divisiveness in my post. Nothing partisan. My post was more of clarification for those who think Barth Nnaji went home with some megawatts as soon as he was sacked. I'v heard that claim over and over again so I thought I should do some explanation. Those were the people I referred to as "you guys". I know the notorious guys who are here to make trouble and I dont think you'r one of them.

I got your clarification,it was the 'you guys' that i couldnt understand.
No hard feelings all the same cos though our approach and thoughts may differ,i believe the average Nigerian wants things to get better since we will be the ones to reap the benefits of an improved standard of living in our dear country.

Tigerhead: These posters are the ultimate sign that most Nigerians are just walking zombies.

Everyone knows that Lamido can not be the PDP candidate. Not because of GEJ, but because he is from the wrong zone. The next Presidential candidate on the platform of the PDP from the North cannot come from the zone that Lamido is from.

The thing is most of the people here really don't want the truth, what they want to hear is "who is fighting GEJ"

Morons

You may be right in your postulation but i advise that you edit your post and remove the part where you referred to 'most' Nigerians as 'walking zombies'. Cant two or even more people argue without bringing curses,insults and name calling into it?I am beginning to see this more amongst the so called educated youths and i believe that it is really unfortunate.Remove the part where you called most Nigerians zombies and you will see that your post will make more sense.

Sincere 9gerian: When you guys mention Barth Nnaji this, and that, I begin to wonder whether Barth Nnaji went home with some power plants when he was sacked. Too much sentiments and emotions is at play in this country. I acknowledge that Barth Nnaji worked very hard as power minister but to now equate his sack with drop in power supply is to say the least ridiculous. How does anyone expect sustainable improvement in power supply with a mere 4,000mw or so for a population of 160million people? What happens is that as the country generation capacity hits NEW PEAK, there's temporary improvement in power supply. That improvement is soon swallowed up in SOME areas by more demand. It will continue to happen that way until generation capacity far exceed both ACTIVE demand and POTENTIAL demand for electricity. Active and potential demand today should be around 10,000 to 15,000megawatts. Only then shall we have sustained stable power supply.

You have to be more precise about what you meant by 'you guys' before i engage in any meaningful exchange with you.Furthermore,you are in the best position to answer that question you asked about whether Nnaji went home with some power plants when he was sacked because you seem to know it all when it comes to issues concerning the present government at the federal level.
I am an ordinary Nigerian who reserves the right to ask questions and express myself on issues that affect my every day living.I paid precisely $9,850 as my electricity bill for this month and i have been in darkness for the greater part of this month.Presently i have been in darkness for four days running;so get off your high horse and let people express themselves sincerely since that seems to be your mantra.
I have never joined in your e-fight and i do not ever want to be a part of it;but know that you can only win people to your side when you combine your superior knowledge with humility in your interactions with them.It shows an enlightened mind that is certain of his facts.No real individual will bow to your divisive and intimidating tactics of us against 'you guys'.

I do not claim to know the technicalities involved in these polls and its attendant ratings but i know for sure that things would have been better if there has been real and sustained improvement in electricity supply to Nigerians like it was during the short-lived tenure of Bart Nnaji.Moreover,the likes of Igali are compounding the problems of the present administration by telling lies about the power situation.
Nigerians are generally patient and magnanimous and i believe they will really understand if Jonathan in all sincerity asks for more time to fix the power sector.The likes of Igali only create mistrust between government and its citizens.
They need to learn from Nnaji who matched words with actions with almost every Nigerian testifying that he was indeed a man of his words.So who says Nigerians are perennial critics who do not appreciate a performer when they see one?

Mr Uba,welcome to the murky waters of Nigerian politics.Uba showed his hands too early thereby making himself an easy target.But hate him or love him,he has really brought some life and excitement into the gubernatorial contest in Anambra state.That's the beauty of democracy;though he seems to have overdone the money sharing aspect.

Government magic.Little wonder Jonathan cannot muster the courage to probe Obj. The sooner we realise that PDP is our common enemy the better for all of us.

thelonestranger: Typical Nigerian has:
6 airconditioners in house running 24 hours
10 hig wattage security light on all night
3 LED TVs on at leat 16 hours a day
3 Freezers
2 Huge fridges
Electric cooker with electric grill

And then goes to PHCN office to complain about "Crazy Bill"
Naija no dey carry last

You are a sorry excuse for a human being.How many of your kinsmen can afford six air conditioners and how many rooms does your typical Nigerian occupy with his family?Maybe the word typical has another meaning to you but you should learn not to make mockery of people when they are discussing issues that affect their every day living.I am very certain that you are a PHCN staff.Woe betide you if and when the people decide to take back what you people have stolen from them.A word should be enough for someone who is not so wise as you obviously are.

I stay in Onitsha & we have received 48hrs of darkness for two days now.The darkness is more constant than light so i guess you can understand why it is easier to calculate the hours of darkness than that of light.What a govt of liars.