The Tribune

By INIGO 'NAUGHTY' ZENICAZELAYA

I DISTINCTLY remember in January of 2018, that works Minister Desmond Bannister suggested that Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) was on pace to deliver to the public its best summer on record.

Fast forward eight months to August of 2018, and I can honestly say that, it wasn’t the best summer ever, it was full of load shedding and unbearable heat!

Now if drama, intrigue and confusion, sprinkled with a dash of pettiness and decent serving of backbiting is your cup of tea, then boy did BPL ever deliver in the summer of ‘18.

The sweltering summer started off, with a dramatic firing by Minister Bannister that wiped the board clean.

Then there was a $300,000.00 salary demand, followed by (totally unscripted) accusations of “political interference” by ousted chairperson Darnell Osborne, who presented her case to the media in a way that would make Omarosa proud.

That led to Minister Bannister bringing “the receipts” on alleged egregious personal expenditures by board members (something something security, something something makeup) that had women around the country sucking their teeth and ready to fight. (Some are still vex.)

Which led to BPL’s newly appointed chairman Dr Donovan Moxey’s attempting to sell the mobile payment app of his “other” company to BPL.

As a professional comedian I couldn’t write this joke, um ... story any funnier.

It should have been filmed, it had reality show with mass appeal written all over it.

Housewives from wherever didn’t stand a chance against “The Real Big Bosses of BPL.”

And then, suddenly all the chaos went silent, the comedy manna from comedy heaven stopped falling.

Silence!

Until April of this year, re entering from stage left BPL Chairman Donovan Moxey, looking to play the lead roll, this season “The Real Bigger Bosses of BPL.”

Talking the talk - “We don’t expect any load shedding,” Moxey said, in an interview with The Nassau Guardian.

He added, “There are several generation assets that we’re looking to make sure that we maintain properly [and] appropriately so that we will be ready for the summer.

“We are also looking at bringing in some additional rental generation to cover the needs in the summer. (You mean those huge monstrosities that disrupt traffic at the most inopportune times?)

“So from our perspective, we’re doing everything that we can in order to prepare for the load that we’re required to deliver during the summer months.”

No, no, no, Doc!

Haven’t you learned from Minister Bannister’s past braggadocio, how far off he was, and how we all roasted as a result.

Quiet, sir, like the old people say “Hush, yinna ga put mouth on it.”

And he did, karma reared her ugly head, and served up a whole plate full of “crow.”

Load shedding in abundance, endless hours of sweltering throughout Nassau.

Forcing Dr. Moxey to take the bull by the horns, and address the totally unacceptable, substandard power provision, we’ve been receiving here in Nassau.

“We acknowledge that it is our responsibility first and foremost to keep the power on, and we did not do that.”

“For this, we again apologize.”

Moxey said during a press conference at BPL’s headquarters.

I applaud his timely, response, however, what are you going to do to ensure BPL keeps the power on Dr Moxey?

And what’s the solution to the present, existing problem.

Nassauvians are tired of of suffocating in unbearable heat, compounded by daily, load shedding, in fact sometimes multiple times daily.

“We recognize our duty to our stakeholders to communicate forthrightly and in a timely manner about those things which impinge on our ability to meet our mandate to supply power to our customers, and it is in that spirit that we are here this morning.”

And then, very craftily Moxey dropped this nugget – “Let us be clear; what occurred over the weekend was an anomaly.

While our company admittedly has a history of difficulty dealing with the summer months, the experience of the past weekend was out of the ordinary, and we are here to explain how and why.

The short order fix is expected to be by the end of this week.”

Short order what?

No one has got time for that, and the pontificating that comes along with it.

I think all Nassauvians, after years of suffering, want and need a long term, effective form of power provision.

And just like that, I’ve conjured up the evil BPL spirits, my power just went off!

Karma seems to have given me a hail!! And now I sit here, patiently sweating to death.

Join me next week on “The Real Bigger Bosses of BPL.”

As works Minister Desmond Bannister will not be outdone-

“Despite days of load shedding, Bahamas Power and Light’s (BPL) performance so far this summer has been better than it was during any of the summers under the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration.”

I’m surprised Bannister didn’t sever his tongue with that one?

In the meantime I’m off to petition the office of the PM, to change the national anthem from ‘March On Bahama Land’ to ‘Turn Off The Lights” by Teddy Pendergast.

It could happen!