Senate President, Dr, Bukola Saraki, is troubled. This has nothing to do with his ongoing crisis of legitimacy as Senate President. For now, the battle against his political party that has accused him of playing Brutus has been shifted to another day. His priority today is promoting solidarity with Nigerians that have been in darkness for 16 years. Bukola Saraki, an inheritor of Kwara fiefdom who often treats all as subjects, told Nigerians last week that he was troubled that they have not derived joy from both 'the power Reform Act and the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.'

Senator Godswill Akpabio, probably as part of the horse-trading that produced him Senate Minority Leader against Senate convention, was the first to echo the Senate President's sentiments. He was followed by Senator Danjuma Goje who expressed his empathy for Nigerians because of 'the untold suffering that lack of power supply had caused' them. As for Senator Ndume, his righteous indignation stemmed not just from the fact that he spends N10,000 daily to power his generator, but more from the failure of 'government to show anything for the huge amount of money sunk into the power sector in the last 16 years.

United by their passion for Nigeria, law makers that have for two months engaged in competition over 'materials and ideas' which only ended with the sharing of about N13b for doing absolutely nothing, resolved to probe the power sector from Obasanjo to Jonathan. They have accordingly set up the Senator Abubakar Kyari's Ad Hoc Committee to 'investigate the activities of the Discos and what is preventing Nigerians from benefitting from the unbundling of the PHCN'.

However, for the exercise not to be seen as diversionary, many are saying the Senate should first solve its leadership crisis of legitimacy following the establishment by the police that the Senate rules used for the election of the Senate leadership were forged. But beyond this, many also believe Nigerians don't really need a probe to identify those behind their continued darkness. All that is needed, in their view, since our leaders believe Nigerians suffer from collective amnesia, is a recall to memory.

In 2008, Obasanjo in a long letter warned the Dimeji Bankole-led Lower House that probing his handling of the power sector will be noting but 'a theatrical or circus show (which) will provide fun and maybe hurt some people'. He then went on to give an account of his stewardship to the Elumelu House Committee. He inherited in 1999 seven power stations in different states of disrepair, generating 1500MW; he added six with the seventh at finishing stage by 2007; introduced the pre-paid meter system and moved revenue generation from about N2b per month in year 2000 to about N7b per month in 2007 with$6.5b as capital expenditure and running costs between 1999 to 2007 including outstanding letters of credit as against the Dimeji Bankole's $16b and Yar Adua's $10b bandied figures. He capped all up with the inauguration of the Nigeria Integrated Power Project (NIPP), hoping 'his successors would be driven with the same zeal and move the planned target up to 20,000 MW by 2015'.According to him, to kick-start, besides the Chinese loan facility, the National Council of State and the National Assembly also approved an initial $2.5b for NIPP from the "Excess Crude Oil Account" (ECOA) in August 2005.

The late Dr. Agagu, his minister for power, also revealed that 'between June 2000 and December 2002, 'our electricity generation capacity increased from 1425 to 4300 megawatts'; that the establishment of four power projects were completed within 24 months from contractors' mobilisation, making them the fastest of deliveries in the history of Nigeria. 'For all the four plants, a concessionary funding programme was negotiated with the Chinese Exim Bank through which the Nigerian government paid only 35 per cent of their cost for the plants to be delivered. The balance of 65 per cent, he explained, was to be paid over a seven-year period at six per cent interest rate and two years moratorium'. But Godwin Elumelu, as House of Representative chairman on power representing cash strapped lawmakers who claimed to have sold landed properties to fight the 2007 election, insisted there was indeed evidence of corruption in the process of awarding the contracts. On that account they delayed the Obasanjo scheme for two years.

But all that was needed to prove our lawmakers were men with feet of clay was an opportunity to spend N7b of excess REA fund within two weeks to prevent the money from returning to government coffers. To beat the deadline, Elumelu and his colleagues according to EFCC, ignored 'due process', nominated nine contractors by proxy, authorised the MD of REA to award them the contracts, and prevailed on the Permanent Secretary of the ministry who was also the acting minister to grant approval for the contracts and the payment of 15 per cent of the fee. The balance of 85 per cent was equally withdrawn from the REA account and lodged in the banks where those contractors had their accounts. On June 14 2010, EFCC further accused Godwin Elumelu, and Senator Nicholas Ugbane, his counterpart as Senate Committee Chairman on Power, of misappropriating over N10b public funds. EFCC therefore concluded that theexercise "was used as conduit pipes with which funds of the Rural Electrification Agency were siphoned". EFCC added other offences - 'misappropriation of N500million to buy houses; diversion of REA's funds; flouting of government's rules on award of contracts and award of fictitious and unnecessary contracts without following due process.' But Justice M.G Umar of Abuja High Court on March 24, 2012, absolved them along with their fronts, claiming 'he was unable to find a prima facie case or complaint disclosed in the proof of evidence against the respondent'. EFCC never appealed.

Jonathan, after a two-year delay, went back to Obasanjo's programme. His Roadmap for Power Sector Reform was a continuation of Obasanjo's 2005 Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSR Act), which called for 'unbundling the national power utility company into a series of 18 successor companies: six generation companies and 11 distribution companies. But the well-known forces behind our darkness once again overwhelmed a less self-assertive Jonathan. For instance, most of the 60 licensed Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were allegedly owned by some PDP leaders or their sympathisers. And as if to confirm this, Jerry Gana, a PDP leading light doubling as (IPPAN) chairman, led the body to meet government over the demand of IPPS for waivers on 'importation of gas-related machinery and equipment.' The Jonathan government followed with a promise of more than half a billion bailout.

As the saying goes, 'the pests that feed on leaf live on leaves'. The Senate needs not waste our resources to know that those who have continued to feed on the blood and sweat of Nigerian tax payers are those prolonging our darkness. Dagogo Jack, the chairman of Jonathan presidential task force on power now says " since government has no control over private firms, the best government can do is to ensure they 'sustain the current 4500MW level, if they cannot increase it." With power generation sometimes falling below 2000MW and consumers debited for energy never supplied, government says it is helpless. Prof Bath Nnaji who as minister for power claimed that 'apart from transmission, the (power)sector, "with regard to generation, was moving ahead by 'leaps and bounds', now as an investor, probably smiles to the bank following the commissioning of his transmission firm in Aba by then President Jonathan. The lot of consumers remains the same. His successor, Prof. Nebo, who told us that "the situation where only 25 per cent of Nigerians have access to electricity is a nightmare caused by human beings used by evil forces" has failed to identify the parasites that have continued to prolong our darkness. Of course, as for the well-known PDP stalwarts with links to the power sector who donated billions towards ex-president Jonathan's failed reelection bid, what is needed is not Senate probe but EFCC inquisition.