Several federal universities have been experiencing severe cases of power blackouts. This is because they have been unable to pay outstanding electricity bills to electricity distribution companies. Blackouts have remained a major problem, not just in universities, but across the entire Nigerian society. It leaves in its trail unnecessary difficulties in the execution of simple tasks and grounding economic activities.
But electricity problems in higher education pose greater challenges. According to experts, they impede learning, conducting groundbreaking research and the smooth running of all activities. This has also led to students resorting to unhealthy methods just to achieve their goals.
Investigations revealed that failure to pay the high electricity bills by federal universities from 2021 had led to disconnections by the Discos.
A notice of disconnection sent to the Ahmadu Bello University by the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company on April 4, 2023, revealed that the school owed a total of N931,479,317.84. The notice, which was addressed to the office of the vice-chancellor, urged the university to “please settle your bills”.
The disconnection notice was followed by a total blackout, which lasted some days until the intervention of the Kaduna State Government.
Similarly, the University of Maiduguri also suffered an outage. Information gathered from sources in the institution revealed that the outage was due to the fact that the university could not afford to pay the new rate introduced by the power provider.
In November 2021, medical students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, protested a two-month power outage. They urged the institution to find a lasting solution to the power issue.
In January 2021, Obafemi Awolowo University was plunged into darkness over unpaid electricity bills. The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company noted that the institution owed N43m.
cc: Punch Ng
