The relevant authorities must do more to safeguard lives
The recent death by electrocution in Port Harcourt of five people while trying to mount a billboard, and a 17-year-old boy in Lagos while playing football have yet again brought to fore the rate at which lives are being lost to this menace.That such a tragedy continues to recur raises serious questions about how the authorities in the power sector take the issue of safety. Indeed, the statistic of death by electrocution is long. Yet most of them result from a lackadaisical attitude of the electricity company workers, who most often ignore early warnings and appeals from residents about faulty wires in their neighbourhoods. From available records, the time lag between when a fault is reported, and it is fixed, many cases could be up to one month. There are also times when there would be no response from the authorities thus leaving residents with no other choice but self-help with all the attendant risks.
In several places across the country, there are many old and broken down wooden and concrete electricity poles, some with naked wires dangling overhead. It only takes a serious rainfall or heavy wind to blow off some of the poles. In such a situation, inhabitants of the affected areas live in constant fear of instant death. That is why we reiterate our call on the authorities in the power sector to develop a habit of quick response to complaints about fallen electricity poles, and exposed live wires. In 2019, six inmates serving various prison terms at Ikoyi Correctional Center, Lagos, died of electrocution, following electricity surge that led to an explosion of cables. Several inmates were also injured. Although the then Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola visited the centre in the aftermath and made some feeble promises, no action has been taken since then. In its report for the second quarter of 2019, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) lamented that no fewer than three persons were electrocuted every week.
Yet, while the body counts continue to mount, the regulatory authorities have not been able to provide any solution. In one incident a few years ago, a high-tension wire snapped off a pole, electrocuting a staff of a power distribution company, and a security guard who had lived and worked in the area for about 30 years. In yet another shocking incident, a middle-aged woman and her son were electrocuted in Osogbo, also in Osun State by a cable felled by rain. Mother and son reportedly stepped on live electric cable as they attempted to escape from the electric shocks that reportedly affected their homes when the cable fell.
What the foregoing suggests clearly is that we place little or no premium on human lives in Nigeria and if we are to develop, that culture must change. We therefore urge authorities in the power sector to implement proper educational programmes regarding the use of safety appliances and insulators as most of the death from electrocution in our country are fatalities that could be prevented. We also implore them to come up with stringent policies to deal with many of these issues around safety. Besides the risk of electrocution, people living around power lines are prone to possible negative health effects of electromagnetic fields emitted by the transmission lines.
Meanwhile, we should also not discount the factor of carelessness and ignorance. Driven by pressure from demand for urban spaces without considering the risk factors, encroachment of the electricity cable lines right of way has become the order of the day. And until we address the ignorance that pushes people to indiscriminately develop properties around electricity cables in many places across the country without recourse to law and protocol, we will continue to harvest untimely deaths.
