Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
heheheheh.........People
from the village of a former Managing Director of the World Bank,
Okonjo Iweala have almost spent a decade without electricity.
Kinsmen of Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria’s past Minister of Finance and
coordinator of the national economy, are not happy over the state of
their village, Ogwashi Uku community in Aniocha South Local Government
Area Delta state, Southern Nigeria, and have appealed to the Federal
Government to restore electricity supply which had eluded the community
for more than seven years.
Mr Sam Obidi, who is a member of “The Forum’’, made the plea in an interview on Monday in Asaba.
The Forum is a body working with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company to restore electricity supply to Ogwashi-Uku,
Obidi said the economy of the area had deteriorated over time.
Obidi said that while some of the communities had been restructured and
reconnected and receiving power supply, Ogwashi-Uku, Illah and some
other communities, had been left out and every effort to reconnect these
communities remained a challenge.
He said that micro and small businesses in the communities had suffered a great setback due to lack of public source of power.
Obidi said that there was no doubt that the economy of Ogwashi-Uku
community, being host to a state polytechnic would blossom, jobs created
and criminality checked and a peaceful and secured state promoted, “if
electricity is restored’’.
According to him, computer business centres, barbing saloons,
fashion houses, welders, other operators, have suffered losses and some
have closed shops due to the high cost of operating in the area.
He said, “Those who managed to stay with their businesses in
the past seven years have operated at higher cost and charges higher
prices for their services at the expense of the community.
“The situation here seemed hopeless as most recently repaired
transformers in Ogwashi-Uku have been vandalised in spite of the huge
sacrifices made by the stakeholders in the community.”
He said that stakeholders in the community in 2016 committed about
N20m to the contractor handling the project to fix the transformers in
the area.
Obidi said that the delay in restoring the power by BEDC which had
insisted on metering the community had remained a major challenge.
He said, “We complained to the Nigerian Electricity Regulation
Commission, which directed that BEDC should supply electricity to the
community with or without metering.
As it is now, life in the community is not rosy for the people.
A cold room operator, Mr. Ignatius Okobi, said he and his colleagues
had no other option than to venture into other lines of business since
it had become extremely difficult for them to operate cold rooms with
power generators.
He noted that several enterprises in Ogwashi-Uku, which depended on
electricity supply, had been forced to close down because of their
inability to cope with high costs of production.
Okobi said the situation had forced many artisans, including
welders, air conditioner and refrigerator repairers, tailors, barbers
and computer operators, among others, to relocate from the community.
Mr. Nwaka Okorie, a retired civil servant, recalled that he once
led a 17-member delegation to PHCN’s zonal office in Benin about three
months ago to discuss the power supply problems.
He said that the PHCN officials admitted that power supply was
generally poor around the country, adding that they, nonetheless,
pledged that something would be done to improve electricity supply to
the community.
Okorie added that the officials assured them that they would work
out plans on how to supply electricity to the community at least three
days in a week.
A prominent son of the area, Chief Andrew Okocha, Managing Director
of AC Okocha Motors, is not happy with the happenings in Ogwashi Uku.
Although he has all he could to take care of himself and his family, he
has a serious concern for the growth and development of his community.
Efforts to reach the public relations officer of BEDC, Asaba zone, was to no avail.
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