Editorial
PHED And Protracted Power Outage
More than one month after the Port
Harcourt Electricity Distribution
Company (PHED) gave notice of a power outage in Port Harcourt and its environs from July 13 – 23, a near total blackout of the city has gone on without any explanation for the benefit of consumers.
Keeping people in the dark concerning the situation for which an announcement was made detracts from the lofty purpose of a vibrant communication policy which the initial announcement tended to portray. The public deserves the courtesy of being told the constraints of PHED if any, to show due regard to the people.
We note that the planned 10-day power outage was to enable PHED attend to several faulty lines and vandalised infrastructure that needed to be replaced. Indeed, the company’s Public Affairs Manager, Mr. John Onyi, said the power cut was to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) upgrade some sections of its transmission lines to enhance power wheeling capacity in order to provide better service.
The silence by PHED, in our thinking amounts to an unfortunate throw back to the inglorious days when its predecessors acted in ways that eroded public confidence in their operations and actually prompted the call for reform in the electricity sector. The new electricity firms can therefore not afford to fail the people.
We hope, however that they realise that they are no longer government owned and should strive to embrace best corporate practices, including respecting contracts and ensuring consumer friendly communication. This, we dare say is even in their best interest.
Electricity consumers should not have to strain themselves and beg for information on the progress of work or feed on hearsay on the success or otherwise of the re-stringing or conducting of cables being touted as the reason for the blackout.
Nigerians want to see that the privatization of the electricity sector ushers in a new regime of efficiency and corporate social responsibility policies that are particularly focused on a better company – consumer relations.
PHED cannot pretend to be un-aware of the harm they are invariably causing businesses in the area. They have plunged the entire State into avoidable hardship as there is already a sharp increase in the price of kerosene and huge expenses by homes on the purchase of fuel to power electricity generators with attendant risks to public safety.
In spite of these unsavoury issues, PHED has continued to issue payment bills to consumers who have remained in blackout, and are carrying out disconnections without care for the interest of consumers. This they do even against the policy that outlaws the collection of fixed charges after 15 days outage. Sadly, buildings that have no metres are charged with metre maintenance fee.
The Tide is genuinely concerned that the protracted power outage could further expose PHED facilities to further danger. This alone should make the management of the company and sister firms involved the rehabilitation programme to review their pace and strategy.
We think that PHED should respect its consumers by suspending the issuance of bills until power is restored. They should also improve on their information dissemination in order to give the impression that they have intergrity with a view to earning public confidence.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
