Austerity begins at home December 23, 2014 by Niyi Akinnaso Fellow Nigerians! As I write to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I must hasten to add that the years ahead will be rough, because the government’s money-glass is being depleted at a faster rate than anticipated. We are all victims of the depletion but some of us experience it first-hand. Those who work for the government as civil servants, teachers, doctors, nurses, contractors, and consultants are direct victims. There are four major reasons for this situation. First, the price of a barrel of our crude oil which peaked at about $115 in June 2014 is now about half that price, and it may fall even lower. Second, and as //a result, the value of the naira fell drastically from about N160 to one dollar to about N190 to a dollar. Third, the present administration has been profligate with the resources at its disposal. It not only spent the oil money earned since 2010, over 50 per cent of the external reserves, which peaked at over $68 billion in 2008, has been spent. Even the Excess Crude Account, established to provide cover for rainy days, has been nearly exhausted as well. Yet, workers’ salaries are in arrears, sometimes for up to six months! The Presidency, the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, and Protectors of Nigerian Posterity have a duty to show us beyond word of mouth what was done with all that money. Finally, the government has failed to do what should have been done with the money we had due largely to poor governance and unbridled corruption: Money was diverted or embezzled with impunity, leaving many projects uncompleted, if ever initiated at all. The negative consequences reverberate across all sectors, particularly, education, health, agriculture, power, and transport. When workers don’t get paid their salaries and due entitlements on time, the deficiencies in these sectors make it the more painful for two reasons. First, in the absence of regular income, the workers are forced to spend their savings, and even get a loan, to provide light, water, and security for their families. Second, the deficiencies often block alternative ways of generating supplementary income. It is in acknowledgement of the nation’s declining financial fortunes that the Federal Government recently announced austerity measures and reflected the same in the 2015 budget submitted to the National Assembly last week. According to the finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, “Our strategy” in introducing the measures, “is to continue to strengthen the sectors that drive growth such as infrastructure, agriculture and housing, while reducing waste with a renewed focus on prudence.” Prudence? That’s a welcome new word in the government’s vocabulary. She then went on to mention areas of waste to be curtailed. They include overseas travels by civil servants; foreign training; and duplication of functions among various ministries. The minister should have included unreasonably large entourage, whopping donations, bogey projects, and lavish spending during rites of passage (birthday, wedding, and funeral ceremonies). My question to you, my reader, is this: Are you going to wait for the government to cut waste before you do so at the domestic level? If your answer is no, then please follow me home to watch how my wife, Monica, and I try to cut down on waste in the modest three-bedroom bungalow we live in at the moment. Needless to say, we supply our on electricity for about 18 hours per day. In order to ensure regular supply of electricity, we invested in three sources of power, namely, NEPA (you know what I mean); two petrol-powered 8-KVA generators; and a small battery-powered 2-KVA inverter. The inverter batteries are charged by “NEPA” or the generator, whichever is on. We have devised a standing rule for our energy consumption, regardless of its source. As a matter of policy, we do not turn on the two generators at the same time, and we do not switch on the light in any room not currently in use, regardless of the power source. That extends the life of our light bulbs and reduces the number of kilowatt units being consumed. To further achieve low consumption, we ensure that all the light bulbs in the house, including security lights, are low-wattage Energy Saving bulbs. We avoid halogen bulbs and high-wattage bulbs with filaments. They often quickly run your meter dry. Moreover, whenever we use the inverter, Monica and I try to stay together in the same room as much as possible, since there are only two of us in the house. This allows us to turn on only the lights and the TV in the room being used. No other appliance is connected to the inverter, and only select power outlets (wall sockets) in the living room and study are connected to the inverter. These outlets are never used for high wattage appliances, such as the pressing iron, electric kettle, blender, or toaster. Each generator powers only one air conditioning system plus a few appliances at a time. This further forces both of us to stay in the same room when it is hot. We often turn off the AC if the microwave oven is going to be powered by the generator. A guiding principle of our energy usage is that generators and inverters perform best and last much longer when they are used at or below 50 per cent of their capacity. For example, an 8-KVA generator should carry only one 1-HP AC, which needs about 3.78 KVA of power. By the time you put a refrigerator and one other appliance on the generator, you may have attained or slightly exceeded the 50 per cent usage level. We have not stopped at managing electricity, we also have devised methods of saving on cooking gas. It is a very simple method. Once anything we’re cooking reaches boiling point, we lower the heat and let it simmer. This applies particularly to Nigerian women who characteristically cook on very high heat. That’s why they sometimes end up with scotched pots and badly burnt food, in addition to wasting their cooking gas. There is also the need to save money on telephone calls. Monica and I concluded that two steps are needed to save on recharge cards. The first step is to get the package that suits our communication needs from our telephone providers. The second step is to plan our calls in advance: Know who you are calling; plan what to say and how to say it; say it quickly; and get off the phone. The telephone companies are already making a lot of money from selling phones and accessories. We should not work for them by dishing away our money just to talk. Each of the cost-saving measures discussed above may not amount to much. However, the accumulation of the expenses builds up very quickly. We should begin our own austerity measures by cutting down on unnecessary expenses.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:50:44 +0000
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