In these darkening power crisis times in Nigeria, South East Electricity Consumers Association, SEECA, has urged governors in the region to give electricity generation more serious considerations.
This is because it regretted the fact that citizens were losing billions of Naira due to sporadic power supply.
This, according to SEECA, an umbrella organization of electricity consumers in the South East, was the quickest way to realize the industrial revolution the zone is attempting.
This was known in Enugu, weekend, when the coordinator of SEECA, Dr Sebastine Chukwuebuka Okafor, held a chat with the journalists.
He was speaking of the recent months of electricity shortage, which had plagued the South East, much of which had been caused by difficulties in the generation of power in the national grid.
He said that the situation had led to great sufferings by the electricity consumers in the zone as they made losses of more than N28 billion in three months.
In his opinion, epileptic power supply has crippled most business operations particularly around the yuletide season when most commercial activities normally peak.
Okafor argued that electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the zone were not to be held entirely responsible in that electricity value chain was complex and DisCos could not distribute power that they did not get.
He went ahead to say that the South East was already already disadvantaged in terms of power distribution with the region only receiving approximately seven per cent of the total electricity produced in the country.
Electricity is the key of any modern economy. In case power is not stable, industries are affected, people lose their jobs, and they are still poor.
In the South East people are going out of business day by day, they are just not able to afford the generators and diesel. Our citizens are sweating and saving with their money to buy darkness.
It is not the job of the DisCos to be faulted when they get hardly any power to share.
Provided the government invests in electricity production in the area, the plants will come back, craftsmen will get more jobs, and the youth will get hired. Constant electricity will alleviate poverty more than any policy statement.
The don also questioned why South East governors are still focusing more on electricity distribution, and not on electricity generation in the country, and termed the strategy as anti people and progress.
According to him, emphasizing on distribution without adequate generation contributes to the proliferation of scarcity and utter frustration among customers.
To him, there is sufficient human capital, gas resource, and individual investors who are ready to venture in power generation projects provided governments are committed to it.
He also said that by contributing to the independent power plants, the region could be put on the path of economic self-sufficiency, enhance the growth of industries and lessen the reliance on the national grid.