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“The issue of
access to stable, reliable and affordable electricity in Nigeria is one
which generates a feeling of helplessness, sometimes anger or outright
disgust.” That was how Bola Fajemirokun, executive director,
Development Initiatives Network, a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
promoting social justice and development in Nigeria captured the
seemingly bleak situation of electricity supply in the country.

Ms. Fajemirokun
added that the despondency is so prevalent among Nigerians that many
have given up hope of ever enjoying stable electricity supply in their
lifetime. “There is need for a paradigm shift in framing the problem of
power in Nigeria so that people begin to see it as a violation of our
right to decent living,” she adds.

This perspective
was the general consensus at a one day roundtable discussion on ‘The
Human Right to Access Stable Electricity’ organised by the Social and
Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) held in Lagos. Participants drew
reference from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of which Nigeria is a signatory. Article 11
(1) of the document recognises “the right of everyone to an adequate
standard of living, including adequate food, clothing, housing and to
the continuous improvement of living condition.” Articles 12 also
recognise the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Right to decent living

Felix Morka,
executive director of SERAC, said electricity is a human rights issue
which is hinged on the universal right to decent living. Mr. Morka said
Nigerians must begin to hold government accountable for the absence of
steady power supply, as this can be linked to the poverty level and
poor living standard of the people.

“Government in
Nigeria has, historically and up till the present, failed miserably to
meet expectations on electricity supply. More than this is the failure
of Nigerians to protest the failure of electricity. Is it enough to
grumble when it goes off and celebrate when it comes on, as if we are
done a favour?” Mr. Morka asked.

Kayode Omotosho,
executive secretary of Mortgage Banking Association of Nigeria said
decent housing includes all the facilities that would enable the
inhabitants live in comfort. “These include availability of services,
materials, facilities and infrastructure,” Mr. Omotosho said. “Housing
is just a block. For you to say it is a home, automatically presupp
oses that you have all the other rights embedded. You cannot say you
have a home where there is no stable electricity, where you don’t have
furniture, where you don’t have water and a healthy environment.”

Health implication of epileptic power supply

Infact, achieving
high standard of healthcare delivery would be almost impossible in a
climate of epileptic power supply as currently obtains in Nigeria, says
Lilian Ibe, SERAC’s programme officer, Right-to-Health. She believes
Nigerians should not expect access to high standard of health care in
the current scenario, on the basis that stable electricity is a
determinant of health as it enhances the quality and standard of living
and mental wellbeing of people. “You get home from a very exhaustive
day at work; you are already thinking there is not going to be light.
There is going to be issues of insomnia, fatigue and issues of
depression which invariably sets in.”

According to her,
electricity affects healthcare delivery especially in regards to
sterilising equipment that are used in health facilities. “For vaccines
to be potent it needs to be put in a cold chain system and electricity
is important in ensuring that a cold chain system is maintained. Fine,
we are doing a good job at ensuring that more children are being
vaccinated but the potency of these vaccines cannot be accounted for
when electricity is not stable. We may just be giving vaccines which
are not any good and we may not understand why children die of vaccine
preventable diseases.”

This is also
applies in medical laboratories where reagents and patients samples
need to be stored at certain temperature in order to get accurate
result for the doctors to work with. “It is the responsibility of
government to ensure that every citizen has access to electricity to
ensure that individuals are well taken care of.”

Adewale Jones, vice
president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria
(ATCON) however said while Nigeria is a signatory to the ICESCR
document, the challenge is that the National Assembly is yet to ratify
the convention. “We need to bring these rights within the framework of
the Nigerian law and within the framework of Chapter 4 of the Nigerian
constitution to make those rights justiceable.” He said it is only on
that platform that Nigerians can go to court to demand enforcement. “We
need to push our legislature to do this.”

President Goodluck Jonathan launched the power sector roadmap in
August with a promise that Nigerians would begin to see improvement in
power supply from next year. Part of the initiative is to privatise
power generation and distribution in the country while leaving
government to handle transmission aspect of the power supply chain.
Imamuddeen Talba, the administrator of the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission, said government has already issued 34 licences
to independent power generation companies to generate 8,997 megawatts
of electricity and two distribution companies.