Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, chased the MD of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) from his office. Here's why.
A visibly angry Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, chased the Managing Director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Mrs. Funke Osibodu, out of his office, for all the darkness that has become the lot of his people in recent times.
Most of Edo has seen little or no electricity in recent times. When Pulse visited Benin, the Edo State capital recently, residents complained of experiencing blackouts for months.
The mild drama in Edo Government House
BEDC boss Osibodu was visiting Governor Obaseki alongside members of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Power recently, when the governor handed her the marching order.
A statement from the Edo state government said Osibodu was asked to leave the governor’s office for “failing to meet obligations to electricity consumers in Edo and throwing the state into darkness for weeks.”
The statement added that the governor was surprised to see the BEDC boss among the visiting lawmakers, as her name was not on the original list of expected guests.
Once he knew she was in the building and part of the delegation, Obaseki simply lost it and asked her to walk out.
Obaseki explains his action
Addressing the delegation after Osibodu left the building, the governor said the BEDC has refused to cooperate with the state government to provide stable electricity to the people of Edo.
Obaseki said, “The BEDC has been an obstacle all the way. They will not provide electricity and will not allow you to get alternative sources of power. The state will not allow it.
“As Governor of Edo State, we have lost confidence in the BEDC. We don’t want them here. We are in darkness. Let us remain in darkness until we find people who are capable of delivering electricity. This is our position.”
According to the governor, even though Edo generates about 600 to 700 megawatts of electricity, the people are still in darkness.
Obaseki added that to assist the BEDC on power supply, his government set up the “electricity committee across the local government areas chaired by the Deputy Governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, with the BEDC as a member, to understand the challenge. But the BEDC frustrated our resolve to finding a lasting solution to the issue of providing electricity to our people.”
BEDC reacts to Governor Obaseki's action
Reacting to the development, the BEDC said Mrs. Osibodu had joined the House of Representatives Committee on Power, officials of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, BEDC, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, to Edo Government House in order to update and assist the state as it seeks for solutions to the recent power-related challenges.
The statement from the BEDC read in parts: “The BEDC continues to be a responsive and responsible distributor of electricity across the franchise states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti and is committed to serving its customers better.
“In addition, it is on record that out of the nine per cent allocation that the BEDC gets from the national grid, Edo State gets above 40 per cent, while the other three states share the balance.
“We intend to continue to work towards ensuring that various bottlenecks across the power value chain are eliminated to the benefit of our customers in all our franchise states.
“As a host community, we shall also continue to support the good people of Edo State in ensuring that an enabling environment that will create jobs and improvement in the lives of the Edo citizens is sustained.
“It should be noted that Edo State has the highest number of prepaid meters all over the country and with the introduction of Meter Asset Provider by the NERC, we shall further accelerate the metering of consumers with effect from the first quarter of 2019 when the scheme is expected to kick off in order to rapidly reduce estimated billing.”
The electricity challenge in Nigeria
Successive Nigerian governments have been unable to fix the electricity challenge since the nation’s independence in 1960; with whole cities and communities often thrown into darkness and forced to resort to gas guzzling noisy generators for weeks and months on end.
In 2013, the Goodluck Jonathan presidency unbundled the state run Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) by selling the generation, distribution and transmission components to private investors. The move has yielded little in terms of improved electricity to homes and businesses.
Even though the Buhari administration claims to have significantly improved electricity supply to Nigerians, erratic distribution to homes, power cuts, load shedding and blackouts are still agonizing challenges for longsuffering citizens of Africa’s most populous nation.
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