Thread by @ronaldnzimora

Hi My People, I want to tell you guys something. Many of you will not like it, but I will say it still. It's about electricity.

I want to talk about how WE , the PEOPLE, are a huge reason why we don't have electricity, 24 hours electricity that is, in Nigeria today.

Shall we?

Before you start arguing, I know how inept the Govt is. And we have an inkling into how civil servants have helped obfuscate the process re: @eyooekpo and @SamAmadi's expose here the other day.

But still we, the using public, are a huge part of the problem.

Here's why.

You know how Nigerians like to say, "Let them provide the light. If they do,people will pay." Here's news: People WILL NOT pay.

Nigerians are a special breed. They think everything should be free- free electricity, free or near free petrol, free gas, free water, free everything.

They do not understand that amenities cost money to set up, and even more money to maintain. They do not know and do not care to know.

So they rail against business owners and any Govt who asks them to pay for stuff (minus the Lagos State Govt and the taxes they ask for though)

The worst part is we have had successive Govts who have enabled this wrong thinking. In fact the current Govt has further perpetuated this abysmal thinking and made it even more pervasive.

We are not a rich country. We cannot subsidize everything. In case we do not know it...

our revenue comes from a depleting product - oil, and as the years go by, more and more countries will produce oil causing a glut and the prices to fall further, and cheaper alternative sources of energy will come on stream, making the use of oil redundant.

This means that...

there is no money to continue to subsidize petrol, power, food, and civil servants and whatever else catches our fancy. Plus, it's anti-business for Govt to even try to fix prices of stuff.

If we want 24 electricity, we should be ready to pay for it. Simple.

Now here's news.

The other day @theofficialFEMI tweeted how he spent just =N=500 in 24 hours on light. He spoke about how it was too small.

He was attacked. People came with all sorts of explanations. Go to those same people's TL and see how they're still lamenting unavailability of electricity

I live in a gated private estate. We have reasonably steady electricity because everyone uses a prepaid meter and everyone pays, so EKEDC is invested in us having steady electricity.

I pay around =N=10000 a month for some 12-14 hours a day of electricity. Frankly, its too small.

Before you start saying, it's because I have money, here's why I say so:

I looked up electricity prices in the USA. Mind you they have 24 hours electricity.

Here's what it is in 2013 and in 2015: (images below

Read through the text on those images and see how much they're pay

Now before you start saying, "But Ronald, incomes differ", yes that is true, but to the best of my knowledge, the costs of producing electricity and transmitting same to homes in Nigeria do not differ from those in the USA.

So if the costs are the same, and even more...

in some cases,why are we paying significantly less? Does this not then mean that our power companies are constrained to expand? Does this not mean they'll be reluctant to invest in the sector? How do we expect institutional investors to put money into our power sector like this?

And why on earth is Govt dictating and fixing power prices, bikonu?

It's not to our advantage, no matter how well meaning it may seem or what platitudes they use to justify it. We want steady electricity, right? Let's do some math because math is truth.

So I spend =N=10,000...

a month for 12 hours of electricity. This means if I want power the rest of the 12 hours, I have to power it. But let's say I only want to power the house for an extra 4 hours, 8 - 12 noon. It'll take around 5 litres of petrol, every day. In 7 days that's 35 litres. This will...

cost around =N=5,075. In one month, that amounts to =N=20,300.

So to power for only 4 hours each day,I'll spend more than 2x what I pay for 14 hours electricity each month. Imagine I was burning petrol for 14 hours. And I'm not even talking about Diesel. Thats a whole other wave

People say its business people who sell generators who do not want 24 hours electricity to work. That's bollocks. I believe it's fuel marketers and US.

Look at the facts, do the math and see the truth. If you currently burn petrol to fuel your house for a few hours, you are...

wasting more money than you ever should. Further more, you are doing yourself a disservice, polluting the environment, disturbing your peace with the noise and morr.

Even if you had to pay double what you currently pay now, for electricity which will be there for 24 hours...

you actually save money.

Like I said, you may not like what I have said in this thread, but I have said it.

Whether you agree or not, like @biolakazeem says, facts are stubborn things. And this fact will remain with us until we change it.

Ciao.

Hope you enjoyed reading.