On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, Senator Bima Eniga, the incumbent senator representing Niger South, proposed a bill that will ban the importation and the use of power generators in Nigeria. The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Prohibit/Ban the Importation of Generating Sets to Curb the Menace of Environmental (air) Pollution and to Facilitate the Development of the Power Sector”, suggested that once the act comes into effect, the use and importation of generators will be banned immediately. However, the bill states that those in essential services will be excluded from the ban. Here, the exempted essential service providers include those that use generators for medical purposes, airports, railway stations and services, elevators and escalators, research institutes and facilities that need 24 hours power supply. Private and small scale businesses were not included among those to be exempted from the prohibition.

This bill, as stated earlier, was introduced on Wednesday, and then on Thursday the whole nation was thrown into a 12 hours blackout. For reasons best known to NEPA (or DISCO), they took light around 10am and brought it back by 10pm. I don’t know if this was all over the country but people in different parts of the country complained about the power outage, which coincidentally happened a day after the introduction of the generator-ban bill. It was as if generator dealers and importers liaised with NEPA to remind Nigerians that they can’t do without generators. And believe me when I say that Nigerians truly got the intended message – senators shouldn’t be allowed to ban the generators.

I am an ardent supporter of prohibition of indiscriminate use of generators by many Nigerians, especially in their homes. Some persons have made it a point of duty to disturb the peace and quiet, as well as the fresh air of their neighbours. These people do not care about their neighbours when they switch on their generators immediately power goes off, even to the extent of leaving it on all through the day and in the night. If you complain, people will tell you the person has a right to enjoy himself. But what they forgot is that the person’s ‘right’ is infringing on yours and that he’s causing you a lot of discomfort and harm. So to a large extent, banning generators will help in saving a lot of people from mental, nervous and respiratory related illnesses.

But the little experience I had on 12th March, 2020, when NEPA decided to remind us that this is Nigeria, made me realise that we can’t do without generators, at least for now. I had a deadline to meet, and I was working on the paper when the power went off. I allowed my laptop to run on its battery for about an hour before I shut down to reserve the remaining energy. I was hoping the power would come back before noon but nothing happened. I concluded that they (the NEPA officials) were working on the power cables somewhere and will therefore restore power later in the evening. But my mind started cutting when I read WhatsApp status messages from family and friends living in different parts of the country, who expressed their suspicion towards the power outage. And true and true, power did not come back until 10pm.

So I asked, what if there is no generator and this thing happened? What if NEPA decides we should stay in the dark for two or three days? What if our transformer blows or gets vandalised? There were so many what ifs, but their answers were all the same: people go hear am; businesses go suffer; we will go back to the early 80’s; Nigeria is already in trouble.

Of course there are many reasons why regulation of the use of generators is imperative but we are not ready for its ban. For starters, a lot of businesses need electricity, and this bill did not acknowledge that. For instance, a small barbing saloon operating in one small corner needs access to steady power because clients can walk in at any time. Denying him access to generators when NEPA is unreliable is a way of sending him out of business. What will this barber do if he doesn’t have a generator and NEPA takes light when he is cutting someone’s hair? What will become of the person whose hair was being cut? Small things like these are rarely considered until they happen. All the same, if the senate insists on banning generators, they should at least include business owners in the exclusion list.

Secondly, Nigeria, so far, doesn’t have an alternative source of power apart from the generator set. I haven’t seen a windmill around here, so that one is out of the question. As for the use of electricity from the solar energy that is gradually finding its way into the country, we can’t depend on that right now. First is that it is expensive, second is that it is unreliable. People that mounted solar panels in their houses are still connected to the national grid because electricity from solar energy cannot do a lot of things for them. So until solar power is made accessible to and affordable for every Nigerian, and until it is made more sustainable, Nigeria cannot count it as an alternative source of power.

The senate will soon debate on this bill. They need to understand that banning generators will not solve many problems in the country right now. They should rather find ways to regulate their uses. But then, they should understand that no one will remember where his generator is if NEPA behaves well.

Stocks continue to nosedive as the world struggles to halt the spread of coronavirus. On Thursday, the U.S. markets witnessed yet another drop that took the markets’ index to a historic fall.

The Dow has been on free fall since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, and took a further leap downward on Thursday as president Trump and the Federal Reserve failed to proffer a solution to the rapid dwindling of stocks as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 2,352.60 points lower, or 9.99%, at 21,200.62. That’s the market worst fall in 34 years. The S&P 500 plunged 9.5% to 2,480.64 to join Dow in bear market. Nasdaq showed no difference, closing 9.4% lower at 7,201.80, all replicating the 1987 crash that took over 22% value off the markets.

The remarkable turns the falls are taking is pointing to a possible collapse of the markets, which will usher in a global recession. Bloomberg noted that roughly $17 trillion has been erased from the stock market in 52 days. The pace is five times faster when compared with the 2007/2008 financial crisis that took 262 days for a similar amount to be wiped off.

Asian markets were on a rough ride as the global stock markets crash took a swipe on Singapore, putting an end to the defiance that has yielded a years-long bull run. Coronavirus came with a devastating wind that practically destroyed the hiding places and left investors exposed.

Japan doesn’t have a better story; Nikkei went down as far as 10%, falling freely to its worst since the 2008 financial crisis. Across the Asian pacific, the markets yawn with despair, leaving investors to wrestle effortlessly to savage what they can.

The Dow futures went down about 3% in Asia, taking along the S&P and 500 futures.

Australia’s benchmark went down about 8%, marking its worst performance in recent times and may drift further in coming weeks. Australia has injected $5.5 billion into the financial sector.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 5% while China’s Shanghai composite fell 3%.

Europe took further hit after Donald announced a travel ban for European countries, crippling the already wobbling aviation sector. The UK’s main index fail by 10% on Thursday, it’s worst since 1987. Though there was insignificant positivity in some markets in the Euro-zone, the overall performance of stocks beams with disappointment and uncertain future.

In commodities, the oil market has been on the loose and has been falling freely since OPEC members disagreed on production cuts that could have helped to stabilize price. Brent went further down 50 cents or 1.5%, at $32.74 a barrel after it fell more than 7% on Thursday. The U.S. crude went down 1.6% at $30.99 per barrel on Thursday.

Gold, usually a safe harbor in times of global economic trouble failed to secure its island from the plummeting economic influence. It fell 4% to $1.563.42 an ounce in 48 hours.

The commodity downturns signify troubles for African countries. The plummeting prices are stoking inflation and increasing chances of recession in a very short time.

South Africa’s stock market witnessed a plunging shock that sent vibration through the spines of leading industries in the market. Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)  fell by more than 10% for the first time in 23 years.

Telecommunication giants, MTN Group, Vodacom and Telkom took dwindling turns in the stock market.

MTN plunged 13.9% to R54.39 ($3.36) per share, Vodacom fail 5.3% to R104.14 ($6.43) while Telkom slumped 7.4% to R23.39 ($1.44).

Nigeria is finding it hard to sell its oil in the face of low cost that has gone below its budget benchmark. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is wary of a bleak future if coronavirus is not contained soon.

“Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria has about 50 cargoes of crude oil that have not found landing. This implies that there are no off-takers for them for now due to drop in demand. Today, I can share with you that there are over 12 stranded LNG cargoes in the market globally. It has never happened before,” Mallam Mele Kyari, NNPC GMD said.

The naira fell against the dollar to sell at N420/$1 at black market as a result of the fall in oil prices. Though it was attributed to speculation by Bureau de Change operators that the Central Bank of Nigeria is about devaluing the naira, exchange rate is still fluctuating around N375/$1 even after the intervention of the Apex bank.

The US stocks showed signs of recovery on Friday after Trump announced measures to tackle coronavirus, the markets leaped to significant gains to close the day in remarkably the best way since October 2008. But despite the gains, Wall Street ended the week with losses.

The S&P 500 went up 5.8%, while Dow was 5.7%, or 1,220 points, and the Nasdaq Composite was 5.4%. However, the stability of the growth is not guaranteed and the market will likely take another fall at any negative news about the government’s efforts to quell the outbreak.

The markets’ troubles have been attributed to panic stemming from the government’s inability to announce measures to fight the outbreak.

“Government bureaucracy simply has not kept pace with the nature of the outbreak and market expectations,” said Tai Hui, Chief Asia Market strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “We need to see the number of new infections stabilize… we also need to see fiscal and no monetary policy support implantation.”

The New York Federal Reserve pumped in $500 billion and added $1 trillion on Friday in a bid to keep borrowing costs from rising. Other countries around the world are taking financial measures to keep their economy stable, including injecting funds into sensitive sectors of the economy.

However, the measures are so far yielding little results to resuscitate the global economy, mainly because COVID-19 is still spreading and will require significant containment to get the markets back on their feet again.