Nigeria is rich in oil but short of energy, and at night the lights are out and darkness reigns for most of the 140 million inhabitants.
Hundreds of small and medium-scale businesses are being strangled by an almost total lack of power in a country which is the sixth-biggest exporter of oil in the world.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, on assuming office in May 1999, promised to put an end to the perennial energy crisis.
His probable successor, Umaru Yar'Adua, says the same, but louder, insisting that if elected in April, he would declare a national "energy state of emergency."
For several weeks now, from Kano in the north to Port Harcourt in the south, power supplies have deteriorated so much that Nigerians count the minutes of electricity provided by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) rather than refer to power cuts.
PHCN, which is the successor to the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and is being prepared for privatisation, is widely referred to by frustrated Nigerians as either "Problem Has Changed Name", "Poverty Holding Company of Nigeria" or "Please Hold Candle Now".
The last evident effort by PHCN to respond was by installing pre-paid meters in some parts of Lagos. But power is so short, they cannot be read.
The national president of small and medium scale enterprises (SME), Ike Abugu, sounded a note of alarm recently when he said: "The situation is critical, the SMEs are the worst victims. Beside the change of name, nothing has changed. Or if there is one, it is in a wrong direction," he said.
The official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported that despite investment of millions of dollars by the federal government in the energy sector in recent years, the nation has to manage on output of 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
"South Africa supplies 45,000 megawatts for a population of 40 millions", Abugu said.
Yar'Adua, the presidential candidate for the governing party in the April poll, has promised production of at least 30,000 megawatts of electricity by 2011.
Energy minister Edmund Daukoru has announced 5,500 megawatts for May 29, the date a new president will assume office.
"Ridiculous", objected the independent newspaper The Guardian, asking how this could be achieved in two months even though it had not been possible in eight years.
Ironically, Nigeria sells power to its neighbours: Benin, Ghana, Niger and Togo. For Abugu, "this attitude of 'big brother' defies comprehension."
Although the government is often quick to blame vandals who damage oil and gas pipelines, others point to mismanagement and endemic corruption in the power sector.
"Where have all the billions gone?" asked an editorialist in the Sunday Guardian, who said that in six years, the PHCN had received 244 billion naira (about two billion dollars) to tackle the power problem.
Early this year, Nigerians suffered from a serious shortage of fuel which lasted for several weeks
Consumers have resorted to the press to voice their anger.
"The PHCN is a disaster. I spend not less than 50,000 naira (about 390 dollars) on fuel to run generator every month and PHCN sends crazy bills for the electricity I did not consume," a Lagos student said.
For weeks, Lagos, one of the biggest cities in the world, has reverberated almost around the clock to the sound of generators and been polluted by the black smoke they emit.
But presidential adviser Foluseke Shomolu accused Nigerians recently of "wasting electricity", saying they left lights on, even in daylight.
AFP
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