Electricity: Between Wole Oke Misguided Notion And What The Law Says -By Sarafa Ibrahim

If there is one thing that the AMBO campaign has shown so far, it is that it has nothing tangible thing to canvass the electorate for their vote in the August 15 governorship election. This plain truth is more captured by the Director-General of the campaign, Wole Oke, a fifth term lawmaker, who appears to be driving the push for votes with brazen lies and outright misinformation.

In one of his consultation tours, Oke fouled logic when he tried to blame Governor Ademola Adeleke for the epileptic power supply in the state, promoting a narrow argument that electricity generation has been transferred to the state. But the thing here is that, Oke exhibited a gross misunderstanding of the law passed in a chamber he was a part of or as usual, choose to be mischievous, maybe because he must be out of ideas on how to sell the defective product entrusted on him as a condition for him to pick the APC ticket.

The Electricity Act, 2023 signed into law by President Bola Tinubu did not entirely transfer the generation of electricity to state as erroneously claimed by Oke. What the law did was to decentralise the country’s power sector and “eliminate through policy and regulatory measures, barriers to investment in generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity in Nigeria.”

Section 2(a) of the Electricity Act, 2023, which appeared to be what Oke misconstrued, simply empowered the State Assembly to make laws with “respect to all aspects of generation, transmission, system operation, distribution, supply and retail of electricity within that State.” In essence, the law removes a major bottleneck to investment in the power sector by giving the states the authority to control and regulate electricity within their domain.

Before the law, electricity in Nigeria is centralised and regulatory powers, which include the issuing of licenses for any aspects of the electricity value chain rests with the Federal Government. Another issue with the old order was the maintenance of a national grid, which is the pool of the entire electricity generated in the country before distribution, irrespective of where it came from.

One expect a lawmaker to understand this straightforward situation not peddle outright falsehood to draw cheap political point. Perhaps Oke is too lost in his narrow politics that he could not appreciate that power is not a cheap commodity that could just be picked up on the shelve like he tried to paint it.

Power is capital intensive and requires the right legal framework, proper planning and the right investment. To set up a 1 megawatt gas-powered plant will cost between 600,000 to $1.3 million. In a state like Osun, the power that will be enough will not be lesser than 100MW. You can do the math and also have it at the back of your mind that this calculation does not factor the cost of transmission and distribution.

So, it is not as simple as Oke tried to portray it and a good reflection of this is the Federal Government, which has over the years struggle to meet the electricity needs of Nigerian without success. In short, the new law has made it easy for states to take over the process of driving investment for power in their states without the interference of the Federal Government.

And already, Osun is moving in that direction, starting with enacting a legislation that will serve as the legal framework “regarding the establishment, promotion and management of State electricity power stations.” Had it been Oke is usually involved in the legislative activity of the House of Representatives, he will be better guided than the bunkum coming from him.

Another misleading narrative that Oke tried to sell is the issue of subsidy. It is quite unfortunate that Oke continues to show his lack of understanding on finances, inputting wrong motion about subsidy removal and its implication on revenue that accrued to federation account. If Wole Oke is actually doing the business of legislation given to him by constituents, he will know that what subsidy removal gives with one hand, devaluation of naira is taking it with another hand.

I am sure he ks already confused and I will try to help him by simplifying it. If Nigeria sold 1 million barrel of crude oil daily in 2022 at the cost of $70 per barrel, it would receive $70 million, and at the exchange rate of N420 to a dollar at that time, the sum of N29.4 billion will be credited to the federation account. If the same amount of crude oil is sold now and at the same price, the $70m when exchanged to naira at N1450 to a naira, will be N101.5 billion.

Mere looking at it, one will assume that the amount realised now is much more than what was realised four years ago, but what many may missed is the value of the money. Money is not about the number, but what that number can get you. In that same 2022, a litre of fuel was N198 but now, around N780. That is like five times jump, which corresponds with the value that naira shedded due to devaluation.

Beyond this, the claim by Oke that the ‘false’ rise in revenue is entirely handed to state government is misleading. Before the devaluation of naira in June 2023 which give a false sense of increased allocation, FG share of the FAAC is between N220 billion and N300 billion but it is now receiving between N700 and N800 billion, even though value has diminished. So, the assertion that FG is giving what comes from ‘subsidy removal’ to states is fallacy and a cheap blackmail.

Even more, money is not just about the numbers but its values– that is, what the money can actually get you. In 2022, the Osun and Oyo State Governments jointly awarded the Ibadan-Iwo-Osogbo road at a cumulative cost of N24 billion but the same road contract was re-awarded in 2026 for a staggering N114 billion. That is almost five times of the value of the initial contract worth within just a space of 4 years. That is the typical example of how much devaluation has eaten into naira, making the analogy of increased allocation pedestrian.

This is the reality faced by Nigerians across board. In 2023, minimum wage was N30,000 but in a place like Osun, it is N75,500, which represents a 151.67 percent increase. The same thing with the price of fuel, cement and many other items that money are spent on. Even Oke knows right within himself that he is now spending more than he spent four years ago to maintain himself and perhaps that is why the N2 billion constituency project for each members of House of Representatives as revealed by Mr. David Asalu, failed to count on constituents in Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency.

The simple truth is that Oke is having a big challenge of selling a bad market to Osun people and the only thing he has to do it is to spew lies, no matter how ludicrous it sounds. Oke can weave lies all he wants but the reality he should be prepared to face is that Osun people will never be lured into the past of misery, marked by unmitigated hardship. They have seen governance work with Governor Ademola Adeleke and they are sticking with him for another four years.

• Sarafa Ibrahim writes from Osogbo, Osun state. He can reached via neyoclass09@gmail.com