SINCE October 2015, I did not travel outside Lagos, until last weekend. It was not a long distance, just a few days in neighbouring Ogun State, but it was long enough to expose me to fresh road challenges and crippling electricity matters that Power, Works and Housing minister, Babatunde Fashola must hear of.

My route was the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, an old two-lane, later converted to six, without drainage and no finishing at all. The conversion was not without pains and deaths, caused by the budgeting system, which was fraught with fraud and deliberate delays. In those years when oil revenues were high, works ministry, then under chief Tony Anenih, also known as Mr. Fix It, was quite robust. But delivery was scandalous and very little was fixed.

That is why road infrastructure deficit is very high at the moment, demanding urgent and serious attention of the new government. The contract to upgrade the stretch from Sango Ota down to Lagos, to blend with the standard at Ikeja-Along was abandoned because government failed to pay. The road was then left for the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to manage. FERMA was not well funded, but there was an attempt to make the road motorable, especially during dry seasons.

Since the new administration came on board in May 2015, the situation of the road became deplorable, almost dead in locations, such as Ile Epo (Lagos), NEPA, U-Turn, Owode, Ijako and other locations in Ogun State. At the peak of the rainy season of 2015, Ile Epo, NEPA, Owode and U-Turn were no-go areas to passenger vehicles. Only trucks managed to trudge along the muddy waters and craters. Both Lagos and Ogun government tried to intervene, but sadly, such palliatives tend to be wasteful without providing lasting relief.

Signs of the interventions were still present last week, as vehicles rocked menacingly on remnant hardcore materials dumped to rescue the road from becoming impassable. As the rains are set to return any moment from now, I like to draw the attention of the minister to what could happen if government does not take advantage of the dry season to do major rehabilitation of these failed sections of the road. There is urgent need for drainages and resurfacing of failed portions, pending the review of the entire project contract. Also, some commercial outlets, particularly petrol stations do not observe the standard distance from expressways.

They drain their flood waters directly on the road, causing frequent wears and tears. Fashola should insist that markets (Ile Epo) and other commercial outfits that contravene Federal road laws are driven backwards. FERMA should also be funded to ensure regular maintenance. The scenario I have just provided applies to other Federal roads across the country. It is the same misery along Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa road and elsewhere.

ON Power, it will interest the minister to know that there are communities that are still not supplied electricity for weeks and months in today’s Nigeria. I spent five days at Ogungbade, in Ifo Local Government of Ogun State, and did not behold electricity for good five minutes. The only time there was supply, I rushed to load the energy credit I bought from Ibadan DISCO. I was in that process of filling in the numbers when the light went off. For five days it never came back, meaning that, even persons that had paid for energy, could not use it. Citizens still have to buy gas to pump water and do other things. My case is manageable, because I have since returned to Lagos, where supply is fair. But there are hundreds and thousands of Nigerians who have nowhere else to go. They stuck with shylock, heartless and profiteering DISCOs; buyers of government property who are faceless and unknown to customers. In Ogungbade community, as it is in hundred other communities across the Federation, all the poles, cables and other electricity infrastructure were put in place through community efforts. There was no compensation.

Matters came to a head when poor folks, some jobless, others artisans and retirees, could not pay the fictitious monthly estimated bills and decided to pile them under their pillows. IBEDC, that is, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, sensing it could never extort the bogus debts decided to shut out the community from supply. It does not matter to them whether you have a pre-paid meter. This is the story of many communities. In his meetings with stakeholders, rural dwellers like us may not have the chance to present our different and frustrating cases to the minister. That is why I am using this opportunity to represent them.

The entire idea of selling public utilities to some faceless individuals has proved to be very unfair to the majority of Nigerians and should be revisited. Some state governments wanted to invest in DISCOs, but they were fraudulently sidelined.

Even the tariff agreement between DISCOs and government is not realistic. Nigeria is a huge consumer nation and a state like Lagos, for instance, could use more energy than five different African countries put together. Tariffs in small Africans countries could be as high as the heavens, it is their economic reality. But here, there is the enormous cost advantage of economics of scales waiting to be fully tapped and it is therefore, dubious to say that Nigerians enjoy low energy tariff compared to citizens of other countries. In addition, we are a gas producing and exporting country and we are in the tropics with good advantage of rains for hydro power. Government should, therefore, accept responsibility for the decades of wastages and failure to invest in electricity and not to hurriedly transfer the burden to hapless citizens.

Let me also remind the minister that there is need for transparency in the relationship between DISCOs and customers. In a publication in The Punch of Wednesday, April 29 2015, IBEDC promised that “the cost of the meter will be refunded as credit units to you over a maximum period of 36 months.” How do I know when I am credited with units when I don’t have supply for nine months? The consumer needs more protection than the regulator is offering at the moment.

We sincerely hope that in this regime of change, what we have in the name of DISCOs and GENCOs will not be just other names for NEPA and PHCN.

Pain In The Neck

IF you cannot stand the heat, leave the kitchen; so goes the saying. The same could be said of the columnist; that if you cannot withstand the often vitriolic exchange with some readers, then quit the stage. Sometimes, it could be so damning and at other times, so rewarding, depending on the sentiments, partisanships and rage out there. But then there are some readers who want you to do their private battles; they want to dictate what to write and when they get rabid and unrepentant about it, it becomes some pain in the neck. I have pain on my neck and I have tried to privately manage it, but it has refused to be appeased. My Editor knows about it, but has asked me to nurse it. I am bringing it here for dear readers to help adjudicate. There is a critic who makes it a game to read me upside down. He holds the lurid opinion that I have no business writing a column.

Last Sunday, I discussed my political prediction for the year. Titled “2016 And Lean Politicking.” I predicted that we may not witness too many political activities because the atmosphere may not permit it. I went on to adduce reasons for my forecast. At the end I said; “The PDP is bloodied and will only rant in 2016. As for others who are stubborn and refuse to believe my prediction for the year, let EFCC, DSS and CBN teach them hard lessons.”

A fellow who claimed to be a UNIBEN law professor charged at me via sms. “What do you mean? I’m surprised the Guardian Editorial Management allows you to write a column. Have you ever heard of fascism? That is what you are advocating…” He said a lot more that space won’t admit here.

Sometimes, rank and file readers pick one line or paragraph and run to town with it. But a law professor should know the difference when a text is in verse or prose. A law professor should know when it is parody or satire. As a political reporter, I belong to no party, but to every party. It will be our collective scandal the day a university don abandons detailed text appreciation all because of crass partisanship.