CONFUSION rocks All Progressive Congress (APC) as Abuja High Court disqualified Bayelsa Deputy Governor Candidate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo 3 days to the electionover false information submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In a suit filed as FHC/ABJ/CS/1101/2019 before the court by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC against Degi-Eremienyo over the provision of false information.
PDP sued Degi-Eremienyo over false information in his CF0001 form submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest for deputy governor of the state in the November 16 election.
According to the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Information, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the documents obtained from the court revealed five different names on the candidate’s certificates.
Markson said Degi’s First school leaving certificate(FLSC) in 1976, bore Degi Biobaragha while his West African Examination Council (WAEC) of 1984 carried Adegi Biobarakumo.
He added that the candidate’s first degree in 1990 from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) bore Degi Biobarakuma, the name on his master’s degree from Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) obtained in 2002 is Degi Biobarakuma Wangagha.
In submission of documents to INEC, Form CF001 of the documents carried Degi-Eremienyo Biobarakuma, a name different from the names on all of his educational certificates.
Markson stated that part of the documents he obtained also showed two different affidavits sworn before two unidentified Notaries Public in an attempt to correct his name blaming the mistakes on the part of the institutions as the cause of the incoherence.
The sitting judge, Inyang Ekwo, said there is no connection in the names on his school-leaving certificate, first degree (BA), WAEC, Masters’s degree and the affidavits he submitted for correction of his name.
Ekwo added that all of the documents submitted by Degi-Eremienyo to the INEC carried different names.
He ruled that the right way to correct misspelled names or documents with error is by writing the issuing institutions to correct and not by an affidavit deposed to before a Notary public which did not issue the certificates.
Consequently, he disqualified him on the ground that he provided false information to the electoral body to stand for the election.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman INEC, told The ICIR that INEC has not been served with the court order but that the commission is known for obeying court orders.
Oyekanmi said even if the commission will appeal to the court on the judgement, the court order will still be obeyed.
Degi-Eremienyo is currently the senator representing Bayelsa East and Vice Chairman of two senate committees – Special Duties Committee and Gas Resources Committee.
He also served as Executive Director at the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Bayelsa Commissioner for Local Government Affairs under former President Goodluck Jonathan while he served as Bayelsa Governor in 2016.
THE Senate has urged the federal government to complete Baro Port Project of the Lower River Niger in order to cause rapid socio-economic growth of the country.
Bima Mohammad Enag, Senator representing Niger South District made this call during the plenary session on Tuesday.
Senator Ahmed Sani Musa and Senator Adamu Aliero supported the motion, stating the economic significance of the port to Nigeria, as that which would generate employment for the citizenry, advance the economic prosperity and that of a neighbouring country like the Niger Republic.
The project was started during the administration of the late President Musa Yar’Adua.
The Senate urged the federal government to make funds available to contractors for final completion, urging the government to transfer the roads project to Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) for better funding and execution.
In addition, the lawmakers asked that the rehabilitation of the Narrow Guage Railway in Baro be facilitated, to ensure the rapid socio-economic growth of Nigeria.
They also called for continuous dredging and maintenance of the Rivers Niger and Benue by National Inland Waterways Authorities (NIWA) to ensure navigability, and asked that the maintenance be extended to the lower River Niger and other affected rivers yet to be dredged.
“Mandate the Senate Committees on Maritime Transport, Public Procurement and Works to investigate NIWA activities in respect of Baro Port and make adequate recommendations to facilitate early completion.
“That the Senate engage with the Executive arm of government on the importance of the completion of the dredging of the River Niger; and urge the Federal Government to extend the dredging of the River Niger to Yauri, Kebbi State,” the Senate demanded.
The Baro Port, situated in Agaie Local Government Area(LGA) in Niger State, was first approved in 2011/12 during the Yar’adua administration at the cost of 5.8 billion and was awarded to a Chinese firm CGCC Project Limited at the time.
The port, equippedwith a quay length of 150 meters, cargo stacking yard of 7,000 square meters, a transit shed of 3, 600 square meters and an estimated capacity of 5,000 TEU at a time, was intended to create 2000 jobs directly or indirectly to the citizenry.
However, since the commissioning of the port in December by President Muhammadu Buhari, Daily Trustreported that non-release of the funds had stalled the completion of the project as at September 2019.
THE newly released National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) has stated that 132 of 1000 Nigerian children die before the age of five which showed an increase when compared to the 2013 survey with 128 deaths per 1000 live births.
The NDHS, implemented by Nigeria’s National Population Commission, is a national sample survey that provides up-to-date information on demographic and health indicators.
The official statistics recorded that under-five mortality was 132 deaths per 1,000 live births. It implies that more than one in 8 children die before clocking age five in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the 2013 NDHS revealed that there were 128 deaths in 1000 live births before age five, an indication that there were additional four deaths per 1000 live births.
The NDHS defines under-five mortality “The probability of dying between birth and the fifth birthday”.
So with the current figure, for every 100,000 births, 13,200 children die. For every 1,000,000 births, there is a probability of 132,000 dying.
Breaking it down to each state, Kebbi state has the highest number of children deaths with 252 deaths per 1000 live births, while Ogun had the lowest deaths of children with 30 deaths per 1000 births.
Among the six regions, the NDHS revealed that Northwest had the highest rate of deaths among children below five, while the Southwest had the lowest rate.
The mortality rates of under-five Nigerian Children across the six regions. Infographics credit: Rebecca Akinremi
The report also stated that boys are more likely to die in childhood than girls.
“The difference is particularly pronounced for the under-5 mortality rate (137 male deaths per 1,000 live births versus 127 female deaths per 1,000 live births),” it stated.
Also, the death rate is higher in rural areas than in urban areas with 157 and 92 deaths per 1,000 live births respectively.
“The demographic characteristics of both mothers and children have been found to play an important role in the survival of children,” it reported.
FORMER petroleum minister, Tam David – West, whose death was announced yesterday, knew little about the oil and gas industry when he was appointed as minister in 1984 by military administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
David-West, a professor of virology, was confirmed dead on Monday after failing to recover from an undisclosed illness.
Described as an “ally and friend”, President Muhammadu Buhari eulogised the deceased statesman urging Nigerians to emulate his noble character.
In David – West’s 2010 book titled “Who Really is General Muhammadu Buhari?”, he chronicled his chanced encounter with Buhari as a military head of state on January 18, 1984, which culminated with his appointment as petroleum and energy minister without a prior relationship.
Using the term “Buhari – David – West – Divinity” to describe their relationship, he explained this in the book that their first conversation after he accepted the role of minister defined their friendship until his death.
“I told Buhari that I don’t remember ever meeting him before January 18, 1984. His words were most humbling because he said my appointment was very vital and crucial to the nation’s economy,” he had stated in his book.
“I will not interfere with your duties,” a statement Buhari made which he hinted in the book was the height of trust and integrity that marked their friendship until the time of his death.
He admitted in the book that Buhari picked him to become the minister of petroleum despite his limited knowledge of the oil industry at the time.
“First and foremost, I was completely blank on Petroleum matters. The only fleeting contact with hydrocarbons was two undergraduate (Michigan State University, U.S.A.) courses on Hydrocarbon Chemistry 1959 and a biochemistry course at Yale Graduate School 1961.
“Secondly, the more I reflected on the enormity of my ministerial portfolio in the context of the national economy especially from the void of my background on petroleum matters the more I got concerned. But certainly not afraid of the heavy state (national) responsibility put on my shoulders so to say,” an excerpt from the book reads.
He stated in the book that Buhari’s friendship with him convinces him of his divine purpose.
“My contact with General Muhammadu Buhari and the honour and privilege to work with an untiring patriot as well as to serve the fatherland clearly convinces me of a divine purpose,” he said.
In a statement released by Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adeshina on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, confirming the passing of the academician he was described as “a consultant virologist of national and international standing.”
“He had an indomitable spirit, stood resolutely by whatever he believed in and was in a class on its own.
“President Buhari prays that God will rest the soul of the committed nationalist, urging all those who believe in the ideals he espoused to approximate the same, for the betterment of Nigeria, and humanity,” the statement concludes.
Buhari and David-West/File Copy
He started his higher education at the University of Ibadan, before proceeding to Michigan State University where he bagged his first degree in 1960. He obtained an MSc degree from Yale University in 1962 and a Ph.D. degree at McGill University in 1966.
David-West was appointed consultant virologist and senior lecturer at the University of Ibadan in 1969 before being promoted to professor of virology in 1975.
He bestrode the political scene like a colossus, serving as commissioner of education and a member of the Executive Council of Rivers State between 1975 to 1979.
Appointed federal minister of petroleum and energy from 1984 to 1985 under General Muhammadu Buhari, he had a brief stint as minister of mines, power, and steel under General Ibrahim Babangida in 1986 before he was arrested and removed by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country.
David-West is a prolific author of academic papers in virology that have appeared in scholarly journals and also a social critic.
Born in 1936, he died at the age of 83 on Monday, November 11 and is survived by his family.
USING tear gas canisters and firing repeatedly into the air, operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, on Tuesday forcibly dispersed protesters who camped at the security agency’s Abuja headquarters to demand the release of Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore.
Sowore, also the convener of the Revolution Now campaign, has spent nearly 102 days in detention despite having been granted bail by the Federal High Court and fulfilled the conditions. He was arrested in August, according to the DSS, because he called for a revolution and “for threatening public safety, peaceful co-existence and social harmony in the country”.
The protest had gone on peacefully for close to one hour before the security agents interrupted, first by driving a black patrol vehicle into the crowd as Deji Adeyanju, convener of the Concerned Nigerians civil society group, was addressing journalists and protesters.
“Leave here,” one officer shouted at the crowd.
Seconds later, guns and tear gas canisters were fired and the protesters took off in various directions. The operatives continued shooting for several minutes and chased reporters and protesters on both lanes of the Maitama Avenue using patrol vehicles and motorcycles.
The law enforcement officers then set up a blockade on a part of the Murtala Muhammed Expressway which connects to Maitama Avenue where the DSS headquarters is situated, to prevent the protesters from regrouping.
It is not clear if any person was arrested or sustained injuries during the chaos.
“We were bribed with N1 million at gunpoint not to protest”
Adeyanju, during his first address to journalists, said his group was bribed with N1 million in cash in order to call off the protest. He declined to disclose the identities of those who offered it but added that they promised to pay more money at a later time and also secure favours from the government.
“We came here on Saturday to say they should release Sowore to us because they had by themselves told us that the reason they are not releasing him to us is that there was nobody to receive him, and we came and said give us our property. They refused and played all kinds of pranks with us,” he narrated.
“Since that day, some of us have received all kinds of threats. We are not new to these threats at all, but we were even offered money at gunpoint,” Adeyanju added as he held two sizeable bundles of N500 notes.
Deji Adeyanju raises wads of N500 notes allegedly offered as bribeProtesters at the DSS headquarters on Tuesday demand for Sowore’s release
He said he deliberately would not provide the details of that encounter but hinted that he is ready to release proof if the bribe offer is denied.
“See, I’ve not mentioned any name. We are waiting for them to say we are lying, then just like we did to Charly Boy [Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa], we will also do it to them. If they like, they should kill us… We will never in our country be cowed by anybody. And to everybody who believes in the cause, these things may take time, but I can assure you that one day all this rubbish we are witnessing in our country will stop.”
The convener of Concerned Nigerians also said if those who offered the bribe do not accept it, the money will be given to Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria leading Sowore’s defence team “to augment part of the legal bills”.
“We will never compromise,” he emphasised.
“They have said we should not come out today. They made all kinds of promises to us at gunpoint, but we will not be deterred … And they have told some of us in confidence that they will never release Sowore. They will not release him. They give threats, they give money, they give all kinds of things. That’s the kind of government we have. I’m just giving you a tip of the iceberg.”
Protesters on Tuesday carried various placards stating, “DSS, obey the court”, “Release Sowore and Mandate now”, “End system corruption”, “An injury to one is an injury to all”, “End to killings and insecurity”, “Buhari, don’t kill democracy”, and so on.
THE ninth Assembly of the Senate on Tuesday introduced a bill to prohibit the spread of hate speeches in the country.
The bill, titled “National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Estb., etc) Bill 2019” was sponsored by the Deputy Senate Whip, Sabu Abdullahi and has passed the first reading on the floor of the Senate.
The hate speech bill was first sponsored by Abdullahi at the 8th Assembly, where he was the Senate Spokesperson. The bill, however, never scaled through to the third reading.
According to Abdullahi, the bill prescribed death by hanging as a penalty for deviants, if enacted into law. The same was prescribed as a penalty at the 8th Assembly.
Hate speech bill comes exactly a week after another bill to regulate the use of social media was proposed. The latter passed the first reading on November 6 on the floor of the Senate.
Titled: ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill, 2019’, the bill sponsored by Mohammed Sani Musa, was aimed at curbing fake news on the internet.
The bill also prescribes: “If anyone is caught with this kind of situation, you cough out between N150,000 to a maximum imprisonment of three years or both. And if it is a corporate organisation that refused to block that false information despite the fact that they have been alerted by authorities not to disseminate that information for public interest and they still go-ahead to do it, refusing to do that blockage will be penalised between N5 million to N10 million for those organisations.
“For example, MTN, Glo, 9 mobile, etc. which we use their platform in transmitting this information, if nothing is done, we fine them and you will see that it will be a deterrence to others,” Musa said.
The bill was however greeted with reactions from the Nigeria Guild of Editors, calling on the federal government to repeal its decision to regulate social media.
According to NGE, the plan to regulate the use of social media would impede on the civil rights of Nigerians to their freedom of expression and rights to hold opinions as convened in section 39 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
In April 2017, Aliyu Umar, 27, began his day at dawn. He started by carefully preparing charcoal fire with which he would prepare breakfast of noodles, fried eggs, bread and tea for his early morning customers.
His shop was a hotspot for residents of Unguwar Hausawa community in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja. When they needed light breakfast or dinner, Umar’s shop was their destination.
Umar came to Abuja from Sokoto State, the northwest region of Nigeria five years ago. It was rough for him in the first few months, switching trades, before he finally settled for food vending.
That morning, a faulty high-tension power cable passing over his shop and two residential buildings were being repaired by the staff of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, but the men carried out a bad job because one of the cables was left hanging loose – dangerously.
Concerned residents in the area observed that one of the cables was frayed and the naked wire could fall on any of the nearby buildings, so a call was placed to the AEDC office to fix the problem.
When the workmen arrived they asked for a bribe of ₦5,000 before they could carry out any work on the faulty line, but residents offered to pay ₦3,000 instead, which the AEDC staff rejected and left without fixing the problem.
Hours later, the electric cable fell on the building close to Umar’s shop electrocuting the occupants, six-year-old Hassan Tsafe and his mother Umaimah Tsafe.
Alhaji Musa Mohammed Dala, chief of the Hausa community in Nyanya. Credit: ICIR
Umar also was unable to run for safety before he was electrocuted. The fire outbreak burnt everything in his shop where he laid incapacitated by shock.
When he was brought out of the fire, he was confirmed dead alongside Hassan, while Umainah was still clinging to life. The young mother was rushed to a nearby hospital, but she died later.
The chief of the Hausa community in Nyanya, Alhaji Musa Mohammed Dala who acted as guardian to the late Umar recounted the tragedy.
“The AEDC workers were unwilling to accept anything less than ₦5,000 which was why they left and most residents had left for their businesses that day. Maybe if we had completed the payment they requested, it would have been a different story today,” he recalled.
The AEDC set up an eight-man investigative panel led by Mohammed Ainoko Sule to probe the fire incident after filing an official report to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA, in compliance to procedural guidelines in the Electric Power Sector Act 2005.
Aliyu’s former tea shop has been converted to a provision store. Credit: ICIR
Three months later, the community leader Alhaji Muhammad Dala and Secretary Abubakar Hassan, petitioned NERC citing negligence of the AEDC for exposing residents to grave danger, urging NERC to wade into the matter, but there was no response.
Fast forward to 2019, the findings of the investigative panel have not been communicated to the families of the victims even after they had submitted a petition to NERC and the AEDC. To date, none of the affected families has been offered any form of compensation or relief.
“Aliyu’s family doesn’t know people in high places. Who will speak up for him? So the family has to wait for Allah to intervene for his death,” the community leader said in a tone that betrayed his distress.
Umar’s case was one of the 47,958 consumer complaints about poor services from AEDC that was filed at NERC in 2017 but the case is yet to be resolved by the Commission. The dead silence from the power regulatory body illustrates the frustration faced by electricity consumers in Nigeria.
Clueless without cues
In August 2019, the amount of electricity generated by the nation’s 27 power stations dropped below 3,000 megawatts for two days consecutively putting millions of homes in the darkness.
The incident took place between August 24th and 25th; data obtained from the National Electricity System Operator showed that total power generation in the country dropped from 3,184 MW to 2,970MW as at 6 am of August 25th.
It also revealed that a total of 2,159MW generation capacity was not consumed by the Distribution Companies, DISCOS from August 22nd – 23rd, as a result of low load demand by the DISCOS, while 112.5MW was idle due to transmission line constraints.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN bears the responsibility of providing stable transmission of power to the DISCOS without system failure.
In the past, TCN has repeatedly accused the DISCOS of rejecting power supply, an accusation that has been disputed by DISCOS.
In a report, Ndidi Mbah, spokesperson for TCN blamed the DISCOS for the shortfall in power supply alleging they rejected power (load) which caused a system failure proved to be a major hindrance to a robust transmission.
The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED in a press release issued a firm rebuttal disputing this claim, maintaining the actual power supply requested from TCN by the DISCOS and the power delivered by the transmission company contradicted data released by National Control Centre.
In a bid to proffer a solution to the problem, Prof. James Momoh, NERC’s chairman set up a six-man panel to investigate the claims between ANED and DISCOs, according to a THISDAY report.
“We organised a team of six and set them up with a specific mandate to call a meeting with all the Discos and TCN. They all came and we met them for five days to discuss the bottlenecks at the interface and they opened up and at the end of the day, we put them in a room to negotiate a resolution to the challenges,” he said.
NERC’s duties also include monitoring the operations of the electricity market using available data to make insightful regulatory decisions.
He explained the technical details behind the different values posted by DISCOs and TCN
“We know the issues are also commercial, but we are putting our hands first in the technical challenges. All these challenges we will get into them fully and our staff will find out why the Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO allocations are different from the daily nominations,” he added.
Infographics on metered customers
Momoh’s response suggested that NERC’s decision on the issue would be without deference to available data at its disposal necessary for effective monitoring of the sector.
The ICIR sent a Freedom of Information, FOI letter to NERC on September 27, requesting for the MYTO allocation given to the 11 DISCOS by TCN from June to August, and also the customer complaints records that had been lodged at NERC with regards to services failure from the AEDC from 2015 to 2019.
The MYTO allocation is a percentage of electricity on the grid that is made available to all the Discos.
The receipt of the FOI request was acknowledged by the regulatory agency and a reply was received within seven days as stipulated by the act. NERC, in fact, provided data of energy consumption between June and July, but it claimed the August records were unavailable.
The Nigerian Energy Support Programme, NESP, 2015 report which was carried out by the German government in conjunction with the European Union, EU, identified that there was no comprehensive generally accepted database of power consumption in the country due to lack of adequate electronic data processing facilities by the regulatory agencies to computerise electricity statistics.
However, speaking to The ICIR, Samuel Ekeh, NERC’s Deputy Manager, Public Affairs said the commission had an independent source of data in tracking the energy exchange between DISCOS and TCN.
“We have an independent source of data but that data will not apply in the DISCOS and TCN issue because there’ve been accusations and counter-positions from both parties. We also cannot rely on their data, NERC is like the referee in this case bringing a neutral scale to re-measure, so what we decide at that point is what stands,” he said.
He did not specify the source of NERC’s data nor did he specify how the regulatory agency would solve the dispute between DISCOS and TCN.
Nigeria’s per capita power consumption is pegged at 151 kWh per year, according to the Nigeria Power Baseline Report in 2015, when compared to African countries like South Africa whose annual per capita power consumption is over 2000 kWh, while Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Cameroun all have above 200kWh.
It was projected that Nigeria would attain the 433 kWh per year mark in 2025, according to the report based on the number of ongoing power projects at the time but that prediction appears unrealistic. In 2018, five power plants accounted for more than half of Nigeria’s power generation.
They include Egbin, Kainji, Azura-Edo IPP, Jebba and Delta, while the other 21 power plants were operating at a suboptimal level, and the country’s current operational level is below 4000MW.
A Paper Tiger
Ibhade Emmanuel, a BEDC’s customer stared in disbelief at the total amount he had been charged for estimated electricity consumption in five months.
“I have paid over ₦150,000 since April which is outrageous. This made me start making formal complaints on the issue to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, and NERC but their response has proved to be very frustrating,” he said.
Ibhade had purchased a prepayment meter for his house in January 2017 where he was charged ₦100,000 for the purchase of the meter and ₦5,000 for its installation at BEDC’s office in Ovwian, Udu local government area of Delta State.
He had left the country before the prepayment meter was installed but his family was able to make use of the meter for a couple of months before they were told the meter was not registered.
BEDC officials claimed they would take estimated readings from the meter until it was registered but the registration was never carried out. After repeated calls to the distribution company to rectify the problem were unsuccessful, Ibhade wrote a formal complaint to BEDC in April 2019 requesting the distribution company to fix the meter or stop the estimated charges.
Officials of BEDC, therefore, disconnected his residence when he refused to pay the estimated bills until the issues surrounding the unregistered meter sold to him at BEDC’s office was resolved.
“Sometimes we’ve had power blackout for straight 16 days, at the end of the month the bill would be over ₦19,000 when we rarely have power supply for six hours in a day. It makes me wonder how they come with such figures without the reading of the meter,” he told The ICIR.
Emmanuel Ibhade, a disgruntled customer of Benin DISCO
He also wrote to NERC urging the power regulatory body to intervene and stop the illegal extortion by the distribution company but his letter was ignored.
Section 96 of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act stipulates that when a distribution company is informed during working hours that a customer’s prepaid meter is not operating properly, an authorized official from the company shall visit the customer premises within 24 hours to inspect and fix or replace it.
Five months later, Ibhade’s prepaid meter is not yet registered while officials of BEDC have continued to send estimated charges for electricity consumed, a flagrant breach of the EPSR Act.
NERC had issued a regulation on meter asset provider service, which was expected to take effect from April 3, 2018. The regulation defined the roles of the 11 distribution companies, which was to engage the services of Meter Asset Providers, MAP, who will supply and install the meters.
The initiative by NERC was to provide prepaid meters which will put an end to estimated billings and encourage the development of competitive meter services in the electricity industry.
The timeline for the execution of MAP programme was initially slated for July 3, 2018, but was later shifted to November 30, 2018. The dateline for the kickoff of the project was moved to May 1, 2019, after the DISCOS failed to meet the April 1, 2019 deadline.
Annual metering of 1.64 million meters was DISCOS’s target to surpass the 4.92 million meters mark within three years.
Section 18 (3) of MAP Regulations 2018 stipulates that MAP licensee must meter a customer not later than 10 working days after such customer has paid for the meter.
“While faulty meters are expected to be repaired or replaced free-of-charge within two working days, except in instances where it is established that the customer is responsible for the damaged meter,” a section of the regulation reads.
However, the clauses in the MAP regulations have continued to be disregarded by the DISCOS, and NERC is yet to enforce compliance.
Chinyere Kabiru, a fashion designer residing in Suleja paid cash for the prepaid meter in August at AEDC’s office in Suleja but after two months the meter is yet to be delivered to her.
She is uncertain when the prepaid meter will get to her doorsteps after several failed assurances from AEDC’s officials.
“I paid for the prepaid meter in August and I was told the meter would be installed after ten working days but it’s over two months since then. The last time I was there, the officials still asked me to wait for another ten working days which elapsed last week,” she told The ICIR.
According to 2019 data obtained from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Nigeria boasts of an estimated 7.48 million registered residential households who are connected by the distribution companies, but only 3.39 million households are metered which means 54.7 per cent of electricity consumers in the country have no meters.
Ironically, more than half of DISCOS customers do not have meters and the total revenue collected by all the DISCOS from customers still does not match with the total bills dispatched according to figures obtained from NERC.
For the first quarter of 2019, the total billings of AEDC customers across Nassarawa, Abuja, Niger and Kogi States was estimated at ₦25 billion while the revenue collected from customers for the period under review was ₦17.5 billion.
In the third quarter of 2018, the collection efficiency of the DISCOS across the country improved from 55.3 per cent of the same quarter in 2017 to 65.6 per cent, according to an analysis done by Price Waterhouse Coopers, PWC. This means that ₦3.4 of every ₦10 billed to customers are not paid to DISCOS as at when due.
Oyebode Fadipe, General Manager, Corporate Communications at the AEDC, defended the distribution company, saying it was currently the most compliant distribution company to the MAP programme in the country.
While admitting that the company cannot boast of a hundred per cent rate in attending to its customer’s complaints, he said they are giving it their best shot.
“There have been instances where we’ve not been able to meter customers within the number of days stipulated by the MAP regulations which is ten days but it is majorly because most customers do not give us vital information for us to get to their homes or the location the meters are expected to be despite that we are the most compliant DISCO to the MAP programme,” he explained.
While admitting that the company cannot boast of a hundred per cent rate in attending to its customer’s complaints, he said they are doing their best.
“For example, some customers have names that are so long that the computer has to drop those names. It is until those customers come out to say that we’ve not been metered, so there is no deliberate attempt on our part not to meter customers. We are doing our best,” he said.
However, the AEDC boasts of over 1 million customers with 580,000 customers currently metered, it is believed that metering customers will reduce the liquidity challenges in the power sector but the progress in metering has been slow.
Electricity subsidy soars, as regulator’s grip on power sector wanes
While electricity consumers complain of being ripped off by DISCOS through the adoption of estimated billings, analysis of NERC’s data on the power market shortfall indicates that the tariff shortfall is on the rise.
Tariff shortfall is the difference between the expected cost-reflective tariff expected to be paid by the customer and the actual tariff currently being charged customers by the DISCOS. In a bid to reduce the cost of electricity on Nigerians the Federal Government through the Power Sector Recovery Plan agreed to pay that shortfall as subsidy.
From 2015 to 2018, the Federal Government had spent ₦1.12 trillion as electricity subsidy according to data from Price Waterhouse Coopers. The data also shows that the shortfall to be paid to the DISCOS has been on the rise in recent years.
In 2015, the DISCOS were owed ₦165 billion by the FG in subsidy, while it climbed to ₦235 billion in 2016. PWC predicts the debt is expected to reach ₦522 billion at the end of 2019.
Credit: Infographics
Between 2015 and 2018, the total revenue spent by the Federal Government in subsidising electricity stood at ₦1.12 trillion, while the subsidy spent on petroleum products within the same period was pegged at ₦1.2 trillion, data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC has shown.
Analysis by PWC also shows that the combined sum of both subsidy payments estimated at ₦2.3 trillion, accounts for 17 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign reserves and 26 six per cent of the 2019 budget.
Officials of the distribution companies usually extort money from customers to fix electrical issues that they’ve been paid to carry out.
Ikechukwu Henry, a resident of Wumba, Apo extension in Abuja is wary of officials of the AEDC who he says extort customers for services they are paid to render.
“In January, our transformer got damaged which AEDC promised to replace, when the transformer was to be installed two months later officials of the AEDC who came to fix it demanded that we pay them for installation and that there were some electrical fittings that they were supposed to buy which the community had to pay for,” he said.
The residents were forced to pay the officials to fix the transformer or risk not getting it installed. Residents, therefore, contributed over ₦60,000 before officials of the AEDC agreed to install the transformer.
“This has always been the case with AEDC staff. Sometimes in 2017 when that transformer was bad we were asked to contribute money to replace the transformer but residents were not comfortable with that idea because we had contributed money like that in the past and it found its way to private pockets,” he concluded.
We are not spirits – NERC
Ekeh was asked what action NERC had taken to punish erring DISCOs for flouting the EPSR Act with regards to the estimated billing of customers and their sluggish responses to consumer complaints.
“We are not spirits to know when DISCOs are shortchanging you, it is only when you speak out and complain to us. That’s why we have forum offices in every state to sanction DISCOS and give consumers succor,” he said.
Ekeh dismissed the accusation that NERC is ineffective in carrying out its regulatory obligations, stating that consumer complaints, which come to the attention of the commission, are given top priority.
“If you don’t report to us and follow our complaint interface mechanism then you may not get our help which is why most people go to social media, saying there is no NERC. It doesn’t make sense if you make a complaint to the DISCOS after ten working days and your issue is not resolved then send them a reminder after that you can put it in writing to the commission for us to take it up,” he said.
According to section 32 of the EPSR Act, NERC is expected to prioritize consumer needs by setting up customer service mechanisms that will proffer solutions to customer complaints to ensure safety and good quality of service in the delivery of electricity to consumers.
In September, consumer complaints’ records obtained by an FOI request from NERC showed that from 2015 to 2019, the commission had received a total of 256, 037 complaints from customers of the Abuja Electric Distribution Company of which 211,820 of those complaints were resolved, leaving 44,217 unresolved complaints.
NERC’s complaints resolution rates indicated that 82.7 per cent of cases from the AEDC that reached them were resolved. Metering issues ranked top priority complaints with 69,030 incidents and was followed closely by billings with 55,823 complaints.
However, the statistics released by NERC contradicts the experiences of people who spoke to The ICIR in the course of the investigation.
Data without evidence
Adetayo Adegbenle, the executive director of PowerUp Nigeria, an electricity consumer rights group advocating for the right to the accessibility of electricity and proper billing systems, is concerned about NERC ‘s data. He believes the data lacks empirical evidence.
“The EPSR Act compels the DISCOS to submit a summary of its performance compliance with customer service standards within ten working days at the end of each month but they don’t do it. So if NERC comes up with any data on consumer complaints then it has to be attached with the monthly monitoring form from each DISCOS as empirical evidence,” he said.
He also stated that the regulatory agency is complicit with the DISCOS by not treating cases brought before them with a sense of urgency.
“We took a case to NERC in February this year for the issue to be resolved and they scheduled a hearing on the matter for September, that action alone would have exasperated the complainant. Another challenge with the DISCOS is that complaints that come to the customer units of the DISCOS are not attended to which is frustrating.
“I have written a litany of letters on behalf of customers to DISCOs which they ignored, and the NERC has not called them to order,” he stated.
Adegbenle advised that a toll-free hotline be set up where all the industry stakeholders will be kept in the loop to track complaints until resolution of the problem is achieved.
This report is part of a collaborative investigative series by Daily Trust, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Premium Times and TheCable, facilitated by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under its Regulators Monitoring Programme (REMOP) for the Electricity Sector, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
FOR the first time, African travellers have liberal access to over half the continent, the 2019 Africa Visa Openness Index published by the African Union Commission and African Development Bank, has revealed.
According to the 32 pages study launched on Monday at the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg South Africa, with focus on the Agenda 2063, the report showed that there were positive developments across Africa in easing the mobility of African citizens across the continent.
A number of Africa’s regional blocs also showed improvements with the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) countries achieving a 100 per cent on open reciprocity the highest in the region.
However, Nigeria Ranked 30th amongst African nations on the index. In addition, the report showed that Nigeria was not among the 32 countries to have signed the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons (PFMP) and also not among the 26 countries to have ratified the African Continental
Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Ranked among the top 20 countries on visa, openness is Mauritania in North Africa ranked first place, in West Africa, was Benin, Cabon Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo.
In East Africa, Comoro, Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Ethiopia (moving from 32nd position in the previous year) and Uganda made the list while Madagascar, Mauritius, and Mozambique were among the only three South African countries to have also made the top 20’s.
Seychelles and Benin are the top-performing countries, offering visa-free access to all Africans.
According to the report, over half of the top 20 countries hold the most favourable passports for African travel which indicates that more liberal policies can promote their own citizens’ ease to travel.
The report showed that 47 countries improved or maintained their visa openness scores in 2019 as African visitors no longer need a visa to travel to a quarter of other African countries.
However, despite the improvement seen in the report, it is only a one per cent change from what was obtained in 2016 with only 26 per cent of Africans able to get visas on arrival in other African countries in 2019, while 49 per cent Africans in 2019 need visas to travel to other African countries –a decrease from recorded 51 per cent in 2018.
Currently, only 21 African countries out of the 54 African nations offer e-visa to make travel more accessible, an increment from 16 countries in 2018, 13 in 2017, and 9 in 2016.
The Africa Visa Openness Index measures how open African countries are in issuing visas, judging from questions asked citizens from other countries in Africa when they travel, ease of accessing visas before arrival, on arrival and or if other African citizens can visit a particular African country without a visa.
NATASHA Akpoti, Social Democratic Party candidate (SDP) candidate in November 16 Kogi gubernatorial election has accused the All Progressive Congress (APC) Candidate and Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello of sending thugs to set the SDP secretariat ablaze on Sunday evening.
Akpoti said at about 11 am thugs sent to SDP’s secretariat destroyed properties, tore her posters and replaced them with Bello’s.
According to her, she received a call at 12 midnight, that the Secretariat earlier vandalized was on fire which made her notify the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Army and the Department of State Securities.
Akpoti alleged that while the military men tried to put out the fire but could not do so because of the numbers of APC thugs present at the scene allegedly carrying machine guns.
She said her security detail could not go close to the scene because they saw the police vehicles armed with officers carrying heavy guns.
The SDP candidate added that the Kogi state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Busari was also in support of Yahaya Bello’s action because he was present at the scene of the incident but did not do anything to stop it.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had called for the removal of the commissioner over allegations of bias on the buildup of the elections.
In a ten minute video posted on social media, Akpoti called out the Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole and Nigeria President, Muhammadu Buhari, as being complicit.
She also accused Bello of threatening to kidnap and kill her while she campaigns through the state.
“Yahaya Bello owes me the protection of lives and property as the constitutional oath of office he took,” she said, noting that she has information about the governor’s plan to kidnap and kill her during her tour of the state.
The ICIR contacted the Kogi Police Public Relations Officer, Williams Ovye Aya who said he is not aware of the incident because he has been busy with the security logistics of the election and promised to confirm and call back but has not till the time of publishing this report.
A leading child rights organisation, Save the Children, says pneumonia is killing one child every three minutes in Nigeria, which amounts to a total of 480 children in a day nationwide.
The organisation also disclosed that Nigeria has the highest number of pneumonia deaths globally, as the disease claimed the lives of 162,000 children in Nigeria under the age of five in 2018.
Pneumonia, which is caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi, and leaves children fighting for breath as their lungs fill with pus and fluid, is now a leading killer of children in Nigeria, causing 19 per cent of under-five deaths.
Kevin Watkins, Chief Executive of Save the Children, the UK who disclosed these numbers at a press conference on Monday to commemorate this year’s World Pneumonia Day, said pneumonia is a leading killer of children in Nigeria, causing 19 per cent of under-five deaths.
Nigeria ranked second behind India in 2017 with 132,556 number of under-five deaths from children while India topped the world with a total of 178,717 children deaths.
He called on the Federal Government to urgently commit new resources to tackling the deadly disease.
“Globally, 802,000 children under the age of five died from pneumonia in 2018, more than from any other disease. By comparison, 437,000 children under five died due to diarrhoea and 272,000 to malaria,” Watkins.
“Just five countries were responsible for more than half of child pneumonia deaths: Nigeria 162,000, India 227,000; Pakistan 58,000; the Democratic Republic of Congo, 40,000 and Ethiopia 37,000.”
He explained that children with immune systems weakened by other infections or by malnutrition and those living in areas with high levels of air pollution and unsafe water are at far greater risk.
Watkins added that recent analysis found out that Nigerian children born in the poorest households were nearly three times more likely to die from diseases like pneumonia before their fifth birthday, compared to the richest children.
He noted that the picture is starkest in Zamfara State, where children are five times as likely to die before the age of five compared to children from Kwara State.
Watkins said that most pneumonia deaths can be prevented with vaccines and easily treated with low-cost antibiotics, such as Amoxicillin DT.
He, however, lamented that millions of children are missing out on both more than 40 per cent of one-year-olds in Nigeria are unvaccinated and three in four children suffering from pneumonia symptoms do not get access to medical treatment.
Watkins said it was time for government, United Nations and multilateral agendas, companies and Non-governmental organisations to join forces to light pneumonia and protect these children.
According to him, “This is a forgotten global health epidemic that demands a greater international response. Millions of children are dying for want of vaccines, affordable antibiotics, and routine oxygen treatment. The pneumonia crisis is a symptom of neglect and indefensible inequalities in access to health care.”
Deirdre Keogh, Save the Children Country Director, said that the organisation was collaborating with the Every Breath Counts (EBC) Coalition, supported the federal government in the development of the National integrated Pneumonia Control Strategy, stressing that it was an important step in addressing pneumonia.
Also, Save the Children UK Ambassador, Florence Otedola, also known as DJ Cuppy, said Nigeria spent just $10 per person on health care in 2015, which she said was far below the $86 minimum level recommended by the World Health Organisation.
“We can all do our part in making sure the children of Nigeria do not die from pneumonia. lnvite us to come together and invest in providing treatment to every last child who deserves to survive this preventable disease.”
