Amid the power outage in the northern part of the country due to the vandalisation of electricity transmission lines, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has claimed that there are growing insinuations that the federal government is deliberately using the power blackout which has lingered for days to short change the region and further deepen its economic woes.
The forum in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Tukur Muhammad-Baba, asked the federal government to quickly declare a state of emergency on the persisting outage and inequality electricity supply in the region, reports Channels TV.
“Over the past one week and still counting, most parts of the northern states of Nigeria have been battling with sustained electric power supply outage, leading to near total paralysis in economic and social activities, not to talk of growing generalised frustration of the populace,” the group said.
The Forum said the situation appears even more dire and frightening as statements from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) suggest that the problem is likely to persist interminable due to technical and security challenges.
ACF wondered why the north which generates substantial electricity power in the country is ironically allocated the least in supply.
It noted that it just does not make any sense that Lagos alone has eight sub-stations while the whole of the northern states combined, harbouring more than half of Nigeria’s total population has only three sub-stations at Jos, Kaduna, and Kano.
The forum warned that the situation at hand is a portent national security threat, against which the silence, especially, of public officials amounts to a phenomenal textbook illustration of the abdication of responsibility, as unacceptable as can be.
“To suggest that the problem has its roots in what had been done or not in the past is merely to make excuses. To lamely offer unintelligent excuses – excuses, not reason – that the problem cannot be immediately addressed due to banditry along power supply lines is to totally surrender to the terroristic criminals,” the group said.
“It is inconceivable that Nigeria’s fairly vast array of security agencies, with their humongous budgetary allocations, cannot dislodge and subdue the rag-tag bandits, reclaim and dominate territory.
“Not unexpectedly, the problem has been a subject of intense debate and lamentations in the media, neighbourhood gatherings, business premises, etc. The smallest of small businesses (such as telephone recharge points, barbing salons, food processors, drinks sellers, etc.), from which millions eke out a daily living are unable to operate. It has also been the same with medium-scale enterprises (such as rice mills, bread, and confectionary bakers), that do not have alternative sources of power or cannot afford associated high fuel costs.
“Home and office operate without cooling and heating and at night are literally thrown into the medieval dark ages of the primitive, pre-civilisation era. ACF notes that there has emerged, and growing, palpably evidence that it is to the utter consternation and disappointment of people that the problem appears to attract only deafening silence, suggesting indifference, from those who are constitutionally expected to respond with care and concern”.
ACF therefore, called on the federal government and other relevant authorities concerned to declare a state of emergency on the problem before it snowballs into a crisis.
“This threat to national security should forthwith be treated with the seriousness it deserves. The problem be addressed with the honest URGENCY it deserves;
It also called for an immediate review of power supply allocation in the country since all consumers pay for it, adding that It is unacceptable that while the North acts as a candle that supplies light, it is being melted down and plunged into darkness.
“This ought to and must change with immediate effect in the interest of national stability, fairness, and equity, and alls on elected northern state governors and, members of the National Assembly representing constituencies in the northern states to speak out more vehemently and stridently demanding action on the problem as outlined above”.
