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Soldiers And PHCN

This Day (Lagos)
EDITORIAL
February 22, 2006
Posted to the web February 23, 2006
Lagos
Does anyone have cause to be angry with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN)? This rhetorical question is sure to elicit just one answer if it were
thrown to the estimated 70 million Nigerians who need electricity everyday. And
the predictable answer is a capital yes.
The PHCN, formerly NEPA (National Electric Power Authority), has not proved to
be more than a mere change of name. Electricity supply is still epileptic, even
more so now than before, in virtually every part of the country. Whole
neighbourhoods are often plunged into darkness for days and even weeks without
any official explanation. Notwithstanding, inflated bills are still forwarded
at the end of the month. Failure to honour such bills leads to a disconnection
altogether. It is such an infuriating experience.
Little wonder there are increasing incidents of violence against officials of
the power company and its properties in various parts of the country. Indeed,
hardly a week passes without at least one incident of some PHCN official or
property in some part of the country being manhandled or vandalised by
disenchanted power consumers. The trend is becoming as worrisome as the poor
performance of the power company.
Sloppy as the performance of the PHCN may be, it would not warrant Nigerians
taking the law into their own hands by visiting officials of the company with
violence as happened last week in Calabar. Or setting its offices on fire as
was recently the case in Ikorodu. While the Ikorodu incident involved
civilians, that of Calabar was by soldiers who reportedly stormed the Calabar
district office of PHCN and took its staff captive for not supplying light to
their barracks. The soldiers did not stop at that. They also beat up police men
and journalists who were in the PHCN office at the time they arrived.
By that unruly conduct the soldiers had not demonstrated that they were
disciplined. We wonder what they intended to achieve by resorting to bullying
as it were. While no one likes to stay without electricity, the solution to the
mess does not lie in people taking the law into their own hands.
Make no mistake about it, the action of the soldiers could encourage other
wings of the armed forces to think that this is the proper way to respond to
PHCN's poor performance. We, however, do not think so. Agreed, it is
frustrating to go without light for days. But the staff of PHCN who are often
the butt of public anger are hardly the ones responsible for the mess. If any
thing, they are often as vulnerable as the ordinary Nigerian. By targeting them
for hostile action, the public is not displaying a proper understanding of the
structure of the power company. Those who make policies are largely to blame
for the inefficiencies in the power sector.
We consider the action of the soldiers in Calabar most indecorous. It ought to
have been clear to them that two wrongs don't make a right. Which takes us back
to the issue of how members of the armed forces should conduct themselves in a
democracy. As we have repeatedly said on this page, soldiers must get
accustomed to democratic norms. They must learn how to channel their grievances
without bullying unarmed citizens. Throwing tantrums as they have often done is
not a sign of discipline or maturity. In any case, we wonder what the
journalists and policemen who were part of their hostages had to do with the
soldiers' frustration with PHCN. Or was that a case of misplaced aggression?
Whatever it might have been, it is our advice that Nigerians should resist the
urge to take the laws into their own hands. The electricity authorities, on
their own part, must save Nigerians the punishing experience of living without
regular power supply.

   

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