₦airaland Forum

nairalanda1:
Well, the fact is
1. A chap who is turning on his generator is not generating for distribution to households (other than his) nor are they giving it to the national grid.

2. Lack of cost reflective tarrifs prevents the power sector from building capacity, and growing strong enough to work for all. That means that people are forced to rely on other means ie generators.

3. If everyone was paying a cost reflective tarrif and had been doing so since 2013, when the discos and gencos were set up, no one would be using generator in the first place. Because the sector would be profitable to work



LOL, that's not possible at all.


Government has not been running the power sector since 2013. So, like every private concern they have to raise funds from revenue (and from investment which comes in from people who are investing in the sector to see ROI.).

You guys should keep that in mind. Power has been private for over a decade. Even transmission which is government run is reliant on revenue generated by discos and gencos

Sometimes, I think you are really a Marxist, not a believer in the right of people to choose how they set their prices.


If that was their mindset, why do we have a working gsm sector, a working air flight sector and a working food sector..?

Because all of them are allowed to charge a cost reflective tarrif. As regards power, government since 2013 has privatised them and then turned around to say that they have to set prices below what it costs to produce electricity, while the subsidy they are supposed to be paying them has been irregular at best, and also insufficent too.

Even the band A which was introduced by TInubu has not solved the problem. It just means power companies make profit from one out of five customers. A company like that is still bound to lose money.

At the end, when you force companies to operate at a loss because 'we want to help the poor'...you end up helping no one. Road to hell is paved with good intentions.

And the sad thing is this government likes it this way. They would rather keep price controls and keep us in darkness, rather than remove price controls, face the people's wrath, get voted out, yet at the end, Nigerians get light 24/7 eventually, because NOW the sector is profitable enough to make light.

Price controls are not working...they are causing things like the estimated billing scam, the deliberate inflation of bills scam, and massive losses. Add the power theft of decades , and the fact that discos are forced to reject power from gencos because their revenue is depressingly poor, and here we are.


You don't help the poor with price controls, Comrade Party leader.

What I am saying is simple. That the public has shown capacity to install and run 25,000 megawatts so the idea they are not capable or ready to pay for electricity when they are paying more presently through private power, more than the so called cost reflective rates is not true. The public ALWAYS pays it's bills. Your GSM example comes to mind.

If they had the ability and opportunity to share this capacity and exploit economics of scale their own costs will be much less. In case you don't understand let me explain.

If I leave home for work and turn off my house generator, then I have 12 hours of idle capacity. That is a huge waste. If the generator remained on and I sold the power to a shop besides my house everyday then my personal costs will be less and over time I will recover my investment. Similarly when I leave the office and turn off the generator overnight that is capacity, investments lying idle for another 12 hours.

All that inefficiency is why private power is expensive and this is what government is for. To manage the resources of the people effectively and efficiently. To take from those who have excess and opportunity and provide to those who don't for a fee. This is the simplest logic. Government organising society. it is not rocket science.

It is the failure of the organiser over the years and decades to deliver corporately that has turned citizens to individualism. It is not a question of tariffs. I repeat people are generating their own power at a far more expensive rate that the Band A. That is why they are complaining. Organise us so that our expenses can come down.

So it is up to public power, government.
Organise yourselves. Get a product or service that works and people will abandon their expensively acquired and run private power stations and pay you properly. Block loopholes to theft and internal corruption and the system will work. GSM works.
Power can work.

If people had to build transmission towers for GSM folks, buy diesel for their base stations and guard them, how many people do you think will have phones. But that is exactly how disorganized the power sector is. Their ways are not straight forward in-service. How do you expect the public then to have first class corporate responsibility.

Food for thought.
If an estate of 100 houses were to go full solar power gen at ten million each. That is a massive one billion naira. Imagine what one billion will do to public power distribution investment in just the estate location. Imagine what 300 million naira will do for water reticulation for just that estate instead of everyone sinking boreholes. If the 100 houses had a security guard paid N50,000 a month. That is 5 million which can kit and care for a well trained squad of crack police officers, community police officers who will do a far better job.

These are the inefficiencies and wastes Nigerians are forced to endure because they cannot organise their corporate existence and run a government that helps them with the best services for the least cost.

Exousiang01:
Some Nigerians who want to become president were berating the president because of ambulance.
He didn't even know it's not the responsibility of the FG to provide ambulance services....

Imagine having such as president

Excuse me.

Leadership means responsibility.
It means vision and transformation.
It means you see something lacking or out of place in society and step in to do something about it.

If a country lacks ambulance services is it out of place for top leadership to create one even if it will neither be funded nor operated by them.

Is the Federal government not trying to create state police. Wil they fund or control it, no. But that is leadership. If they won't move to create ambulance services nationwide, who will.

Remember the only role of government is as an ORGANISER OF SOCIETY.

Your President Trump and Starmer and Macron, etc, you see them going round factories, industries, visiting schools, etc. Do they own them, run them, fund them, no. But the they are responsible for the quality of life of the people they claim to serve.

They say you don't pay cost reflectIve tariff but a simple consult with Google will tell you that Nigerians privately generate 8 times the capacity of public power through a massive 22 million small generators. That is approximately 25,000 megawatts not considering solar in the equation...

What they are simply asking, inferring, is that you take their generators, take their solar installations, take their capacity and manage it for them with a view to effective distribution and economics of scale.

Government's role I continue to insist is basically as an ORGANISER OF SOCIETY. Take from us, it is no ain but trade with out resources and effectively return the investment in an equitable, profitable manner.

But here in Nigeria, no way. The few people we elect, select to do the above just cannot manage that. Their mindset is greed and avarice, deliberate suffering as a tool for subjugation. They think if you are emancipated and empowered then you cannot be exploited. If power enables you to get busy you will have not time to dance around them and pick up crumbs.

Kingozymandias:
Who cares. The economy is trash ,so who will afford to rent or buy an apartment here?

This is exactly what I am saying.
Development is organic and starts by empowering the citizens to produce things.

Better an industrial park, agric clusters, mining camps. or those sorts of things. Things that will build the people ground up. As their earning capacity increases so will the natural gravitation towards technology.

Blue collar makes for white collar and white collar makes for gold collar.

What is this investment outlay for.
Oga spend your money creating industrial capacity that will spur job creation your citizens actually need.

If indeed there is coal in the state, start there. Get your people massively into mining to power up your state with affordable stable electricity. This alone will attract industries out of less competitive states.

Get your citizens involved into how their money is invested. Town hall.

Kingosytex:
And if they are killed, people will be shouting genocide.
I can't see a child armed and trying to kill me and you expect me to offer him candies.

Hmmm...world war II tank warfare film, 'Fury', starring Brad Pitt. Said something along those lines.

Let anyone say anything he feels like saying. If you can just vote according to your personal experiences you will eventually be alright.

That is what happens in sane societies. Nobody lives another person's life. Do what is in your best interest.

A step up. But why is the Nigeria Police the lead and where is the Senate President. Is this issue not important enough to get him involved immediately knowing the urgency.

Back to the first point.
I really don't understand the wisdom in asking an inadequate woman, gaunt, poor, weak and disabled to conceive and give birth to a baby.

This matter should be championed by the entire apex security council and headed by the NSA.

If you want truly independent state police to start on a fresh note and operate differently the Nigeria Police as it is presently constituted needs to be in the audience, not on the stage thought more of chairing the occasion.

Absolutely agree.

No country should put all it's political eggs in one basket. It is unfair to the public who need genuine competition for their votes to stimulate performance. Without competition there cannot be good governance. We cannot find out what is possible.

Where will you ever see where Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will go into a meeting to 'allow', 'support' Real Madrid to win Laliga. The day folks hear about that the stadium will empty, the sponsors will pull out and the game will be damaged beyond the repair of trust.

Stop election fixing. Let there be free and fair multiparty democracy to develop this country indeed.

Afonja2:
Try and be using Google to save you from public embarrassment. It is free.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargaining_in_the_United_States

Oga. Stop grandstanding.

One.
Give examples of public officials that have embezzled public funds, government funds running into millions and billions to be specific and have returned the funds and gone scot free without fine or jail time.

Two.
You said everywhere in the world, so do that. Give examples of other countries in the developed world (not banana republics pls) in addition to the US.

Remember this woman is discharged and acquitted. The case was struck out so she is not on record as having been convicted. Check out the terms of a plea bargain abroad again and come back here.

Afonja2:
The result of PLEA BARGAIN she entered into with the FG.

She will pay back large percentage of money stolem, while she will regain her freedom. This happens everywhere in the world and it is a win-win situation for the accused and the government.



https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/alleged-n2-4bn-fraud-stella-oduah-1-other-enter-plea-bargain-deal/

What do you mean it happens everywhere in the world. Show us where government officials docked for high wire corruption have been set free on a plea and reparations.

Examples please.

SixSeven:
The irony of life.

Everything was so simple until we made it complex. Those who know know. At the end, we will return to what is simple

Nice....very nice.
The true essence of life.

Tragic.
So sorry for the loss.
Heartfelt condolences.

CodeTemplar:
Average or minimum wage? Mismanagement brought us here.

Absolutely.
As it is for an individual, so it is for a corporation and so it is for a nation...or country if you talk about the physical.

What you do with your money yesterday and today matters to your future. If you INVEST it wisely, the worst that will happen to you is that when the storms arrive you will be spared for a season.

If you 'squandermania' it (sorry General Abacha), when the hard times come (and believe you me it comes for all people, all corporations and all nations), you will be hit hard.

That is why we say today and beg this government. Are those things you are spending money on, scarce naira and scarcer dollars worth it....Are they assets that will bring tangible returns and security in harder times to come, or they are for the moment, to satisfy lust, greed or vain grandeur.

Can our leaders be sacrificial for once and think beyond their tenures....

SmartPolician:
Ogbeni, NNPC is an oil and gas corporation (company) owned by the Nigerian government. If FG is serious about making money through agriculture, it will have a company like NNPC helping it make all the money from agriculture.

Once again, go and thank your stars for the bots (that keep banning me and removing my comments) because I have no chill for agba boys.

PS: I won't reply to you again because it's not worth it.

Thank you for this solid critique.
Why can't the government drive enterprise around the key productivity and high employment sectors.

I have said it countlessly. You can create dozens of major, major, major corporations employing tens of thousands by breaking agriculture into value centres.

All the government needs to do is establishment, and seed capital, period. Nigerians are prepared to run these enterprises successfully and return government's investment if,..... if,.... if those enterprises are not corrupted and politicized.

That is the way wealth is created the world over. Government aggregates resources from the people through taxes and laser focuses the energy towards specific investments. Government is like that hedge fund that aggregates resources, goes big on trade and returns dividends. You are employed by the enterprise and at the end of the year you are paid a dividend. Government gets a dividend too, called royalty.

What can be better than that, what can be easier than that.

Agriculture has value chain enterprises from land preparation to commodity processing. In between you can have 15 to 20 enterprises.

And you know what it is same for the extractive industry, mining and minerals, oil and gas - up to 10 enterprises. Light manufacturing, construction and engineering, transportation, etc.

Just be rolling out one company after the other, month after month, get people working, producing, buying shares in it.

It is indeed not rocket science.

Nigerians don't even know just how much trouble they are in. Poverty doesn't fall on your head like an elephant. It sneaks up on you like a python and then constricts your life into nothingness.

That is how government gets away with bad governance. They increase your salaries well below inflation but when they buy their luxury SUV's they go for the latest at market prices. The gap between the haves and have nots widens constantly.

And then you wonder how people still manage to cheer them on having been sold fake promises of 'hope'. Real snake oil business.

And then to add insult to injury.
That paltry 51 dollars is actually taxable....hahahahaha... ...chai.

This President is obviously more occupied by other things than the state of affairs in Nigeria where Insurgents appear to have stolen the initiative, launching the kinds of deadly attacks not heard off for tears now.

Is this man still in charge or is he busy with other things.

The tenant should pay properly abeg. That wig is in great shape. Save the environment pls.

fabolouz1:
My intuition tells me this man is one of the sponsors of boko haram and other dumb a$$ groups maiming & killing thousands and i wonder why the security agencies doesn't have the same intuition.
If you have watched " The designated survivor" . you can understand why.

That is the simple reason why you put responsibility in their hands, the hands of leaders of those places. If security was domiciled at the point of need then responsibility assumes a greater degree because the ordinary citizens affected will ask their immediate leaders some serious questions.

Ndume and other leaders can say all they say today because they are not responsible, they are not liable for security inadequacies or the state of insecurity in their states and everyone knows that. Hand over a portion to them and see a difference. Put the lives of their followers, their people directly in their hands and see a difference.

A man can burn his house down to collect insurance but what does it profit him to kill himself in the process. Let the true love of the people and care for their wellbeing be shared across all levels of administration. That is proper governance.

The simple structure that will contain this insurgency is straightforward.

State police to maintain security, law and order in the city centres, towns and villages within the boundaries of the state.

Federal Police to patrol and monitor activities and movements within the settlements and along highways and acceses on the borders (only) with neighbouring states.

And the Army to patrol and monitor activities and movements within international border communities, highways and all accesses with the neighboring countries of the Cameroun, Chad and Niger republics.

This kind of clear sectors of responsibility will give no room for these blood thirsty criminals to hide. The bushes, the towns will all be completely saturated.

It is not possible with the present structure. The resources are just not there.

This is the problem.
You are appealing to have an army better equiped that is not under your direction or command. Then
your governor is going to rebuild after destruction.

So it is not a question of resources but of structure.
If you had a policing structure of your own you can better feel the temperature on ground, react much quicker to logistics challenges and direct resources where they are most effectively utilized because you have the kind of local Intel the Federal Government will struggle to obtain.

Mr Senator you are appealing for the wrong thing, for a reactive solution. What you should be advocating are laws that put command and control, resources and the right to logistics in your hands because I am damn sure Borno state can do better than the Federal government in protecting Bornu state.

Most certainly.

The average Nigerian still cannot link his politics to the outcome of his governance.
It is not the leaders you look at, it is the people that ultimately determines their future.

Nigeria is one of the easiest places to predict and if you know this you will make a ton of money.

Hmmm....AI gone wrong. Nyesom is tampering with the system. When you type in Fubara, you are greeted with a road block. He should change his surname. The FCT Minister is taking no chances.

It is so disappointing that three years and no fundamental security reforms have been made despite the carnage in the land.

The creation of state police which will have deepened security participation to the sub-nationals where criminality is domiciled, has been dragged and delayed, toyed with.

Even things as basic as appointments of security managers have continued to follow after the decades old failed models of loyalty ahead of professionalism and competence with the primitive ideology of mass sacrifice, mass culling of the most experienced hands whenever a change at the top is made. Who does that.

What is this government doing fundamentally differently from those before it. Nothing. So disappointing.

What does a deputy governor of the CBN know about power and the industry for heaven's sake. There should be areas of governance that should be way beyond the reach of partisan politics. Power is life or death to economies and no one toys with his life, no one plays politics with it.

Mr. President should find the leading expert in the Nigeria power sector with deep roots into its rotten history and pair him or her with a leading expert from Siemens, EDF or other top energy producer out there as co Ministers and let us get this country out of the rut.

If you are in a bad shape and need urgent medical intervention you don't know tribe, party affiliation or doctrine. You want performance, and fast and wish you had the best physician money can buy to save your life if you can.

How we govern this country shows not only the level of intellect but the quality of our willpower to solve problems. Government is too comfortable with the dire state of this country.

Watianoengineer:
Peter Obi is too desperate to be president. He can roll with any character just for votes. It's better they arrest him and heaven will not fall.

Tinubu will win 2027.

A few years ago the popular talk was that folks from that region were not bridge builders across the various ethno-religious chasms.

This man had taken that sound advice and gone about, through the length and breadth of this country over the immediate years both in and out of the election season, yet this is still a problem to you folks.

Why is the ruling APC so desperate not to have a contest come the 2027 polls. What is so frightening.
Never seen a political party tremble this much at the mention of political rivals. i just don't get it.

Kushites:
YOU AFRICANS ARE SO EASILY FOOLED BY SURFACE NONSENSE.

WHILE HE'S RIDING ON THAT BICYCLE HE'S PROBABLY SIGNED OFF SOME MONEY TO FUND REBELS IN CONGO TO COMMIT GENOCIDE SO THEY CAN STEAL MINERALS.

RUBBISH.

SOON SWITZERLAND'S OWN LEADER WILL COME OUT WITH HIS OWN BICYCLE.

MEANWHILE HIS COUNTRY'S FAMOUS ''SWISS BANKS'' ARE THE HOME OF PROBABLY HALF THE WORLD'S STOLEN WEALTH WHICH THEY SHOULD BE RETURNING BACK TO THE PEOPLE OF THOSE COUNTRIES.

BUT HE COMES OUT WITH A NICE SMILE RIDING A HUMBLE BICYCLE AND GULLIBLE AFRICANS BE LIKE ''AWWW, WHAT AN ANGEL....IF ONLY OUR LEADERS COULD BE AS HUMBLE AND HONEST AS THIS WHITE ANGEL''..🙄🙄

We are actually looking for the day a Nigerian leader or a black African leader will actually go out there to conquer the world and bring their countries such riches.

Is it a curse that we never seem to do any exploring, any conquering, any colonisation of our own.

See little South Africa back then struggling for emancipation, today is thumbing us in the face. Little Liberia and Sierra Leone we expended billions of scarce dollars for and entered into recession by a war that freed them from warlords, what did 'we' get from it, nothing. Some military commanders got a few conflict diamonds and that's all.

No one ever seeks to make this country, this continent great. Abeg free them. Let them continue to plunder the weak and divided. They don't have two heads, only heads that are not filled with selfishness and mediocrity.

Everyone is conquering and plundering except Africa that plunders itself. Me want to see a great leader rise up, build a mountain out a mole hill that Nigeria is and go conquering the world like President Xi is.

shegra58:
so Obasanjo was destroying opposition when PDP had 31 out of 36 state governors in Nigeria also? No noise then and there should be no noise now ☺️

So a repetition of errors is called progress.
This is why this country remains stagnant.

The people cannot see a better future, a forward and upward way out.

Everyone is desperate to come in and forment their own mess.

So expect the next person after his tenure is over to do same or worse.

What is the difference between this thinking and those calling for a return to military rule we supposedly abandoned 27 years ago.

Please wake up oh citizen and see to the improvement of your country.

Niwdog:
You think this senators are psycophants,the only leverage Tinubu have over this guys is that he is the president and he can't be there forever

So how did he do it in Lagos.
How was he able to 'remove a sitting governor' from the ballot when he was no longer in office of any kind. If you auto recreate a system you can remotely control it from afar and beyond.

My friend, the only thing that can stand against the rule of this man in present or in absentia beyond 2031 is the people.

The ordinary Lagosian has refused to own their democracy. If the ordinary Nigerians refuses to, this man and his estate will be 'selecting' Presidents well into the future.

He is well into that (while Nigerians slept). Autocracy does not jump on society like a cougar in the bush, it creeps and crawls like a python, and before you know it, you are gone....sold out and unable to resist.

See the debate the other day about collecting gifts and the paradox of voting your conscience. Such folks are gone but they don't know it. The plot is clear for all to see but few do.

My own take on the VDM thoughts is similar but different. Said it many weeks back, that the fire-sale of all opposing forces by this government is not about 2023. It is an overkill just to win elections.

All you need for 2023 is to appoint the/your INEC head and compromise the Judiciary (both successfully done) and the path is clear. And it will all work because the owners of democracy, the people, continue to refuse to take ownership of it.

What I think this scorch earth tactic is aimed at is not a third term agenda. But an agenda (already at play) aimed at changing laws, making laws and resisting changes to laws that will totally and absolutely 'personalise' government. That is a pure autocratic rule. The keys to the kingdom that will project and perpetuate power well beyond his tenure. The kind of thing that has happened in Lagos since 1999.

To have a firm grip on this country and all it's institutions and structures well beyond 2031 even if he is not there physically as HOS. That I believe is the agenda. That I feel is his thinking about legacy. They said it worked in Lagos and all the good things associated with that state till date were his creation, his vision.

Well that is the plan for Nigeria. So that in another 25, 50 years from now we will all be saying the same thing. Well, to me. That is not just democracy.

OneCandleAway:
That's a silly prayer. If it doesn't favour your hungry neighbor he will steal from you that it favours. So we need a government that's favours the populace that are willing to work legally

This is the little wisdom that is lost on the majority of Nigerians. The absence of horizontal relationships like I always say. The things that build society and strengthens real democracy where the people decide the quality of their lives as a corporate entity indeed.

We don't care about the consequences of our decisions and actions on our fellow men, believing for example that the trash we throw in the gutter will just wash away somewhere. But as always, when the rains come the flood sweeps us all. And then the complaining starts.

The black man, I am sorry to say so, really doesn't think very far.