By Uzor Odigbo
Nigeria over the years is noted for inconsistent public power supply and this had not helped agencies in the maritime industry as some of them groan and kept spending millions of Naira on the alternative power supply.
Only recently, news has it that about Eight Gas Power Stations were not supplied with Gas and therefore, had to be shut down, including a dam at Shiroro in Niger State, North Central of Nigeria. This development plunged states and cities in Nigeria into total darkness as power is being rationed hourly.
Worst hit were agencies in the maritime sector such as NIMASA, Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Nigeria Shippers Council, NSC and the main Ports Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports whose daily bills in running alternative Power, according to a source have skyrocketed into millions of naira.
A visit to some of these Maritime agencies in Apapa clearly showed despicable spectacle as noise from generators consistently interferes in normal businesses in their separate environment.
Speaking to thenicheng.com, one of the clients that supply gas to the Maritime agencies but refused to be named said for the past three days, his company had supplied gas to about fives Maritime agencies in Apapa on a daily basis which rarely happens, alluding to the fact that the power outage in Lagos this time around has assumed a different dimension. Asked what the cause was, he feigned ignorance.
While Some Maritime agencies with deep pockets tried to maintain the status quo, others not buoyant to wallow in darkness.
Maritime experts however lamented that the development is worrisome and unhealthy for the Nigerian economy as man-hour is lost on daily basis owing to power outage.
President of ANLCA Tony Iju Nwabunike summed it up thus. “If there’s no power, there’s no economy. Everyone has been idle for the past week doing nothing. No company can run the generator for 24 hours in one week and survive”
“We hear gas was not available for gas power plants but is that why all Eight gas plants were shut down? The day the sharing of money in Abuja is over, everyone in this country would sit up” he said.
He reiterated the fact that no country jokes with Energy and once you do that, your economy is finished, a power outage in a day he said, takes a country backwards for several months.
“Have you seen reasons we are not moving forward as a country”. he said.
Workers in the maritime sector also sighed at the humongous amount their respective management is spending on alternative power supply, insisting that the millions would have been spent on workers welfare.
Although, most of them that volunteered comments refused to be named, rather expressed their frustrations on the persistent power outage which had placed untold hardship on them, both at home and offices.
Those interviewed however called on the government to address the issue of Power afresh in this country as the current arrangement is not working. They also appealed to those managing Nigeria’s power supply to put more effort into addressing the lingering issue of gas supply to reduce the distortions consistent power outage is having on the economy.