ID. NGA, a consumer rights activist writing from Lagos, condemns the imposition of inflated bills on electricity consumers by distribution companies and urges the Federal Government to protect the citizens from extortion…
Given the ongoing extortion being visited on Nigerians by the private electricity distribution companies which took over power distribution in Nigeria from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), President Goodluck Jonathan must quickly and personally intervene to save Nigerians from these clearly rapacious characters. The president does not need anyone to tell him that as these companies greedily suck Nigerians pale with their outrageously inflated bills and smile happily to the banks, he (the president) is the one at the receiving end of the people’s odium.
Of course the buck ought to always stop at his table when things go wrong in Nigeria . Moreover, Nigerians are yet to be sufficiently informed about the existence of these new companies so as to be duly reconciled to the fact that they are no longer dealing with a government agency but some private business men who are bent on stretching their ungodly craving for unmerited profit beyond what anyone could comprehend. And despite the unbundling of the power sector and the emergence of several electricity companies with various names, Nigerians still see them as “NEPA”. For them, whatever they are suffering at the hands of the new power distributors are part of the activities of government. No doubt, this is one very ugly development the president cannot afford to treat with kid-gloves, especially, on this eve of the very crucial 2015 elections, in which he would most likely be a leading candidate, and in which the state of electricity supply in the country would certainly be a major campaign issue.
In some way, the people are right. Government is supposed to monitor and duly regulate the activities of these new electricity companies and ensure that they do not oppress Nigerians with over-inflated bills. But the sad situation is that while the National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) remains passive in Abuja , Nigerians are abandoned at the mercy of these greedy companies. Is it that the NERC lacks the capacity to know what goes on at every corner of Nigeria , and ensure that Nigerians are not unduly exploited by these companies?
This article was provoked by what happened in Lagos last May (2014), specifically, in the area formerly known as Sanya Undertaking of the defunct PHCN in Aguda, Surulere. The area is now under the control of the company that goes by the name, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC). During the reign of the PHCN, the Sanya Undertaking was famous for the heartless extortion visited on the people residing in that area and the perennial darkness they endured. It got to a stage that residents of a particular street there had to write a petition to the PHCN high command demanding to know why the PHCN staff had turned their street into “a huge lucrative industry.” Now, their relief that the PHCN had gone was only vey brief as the Eko Electricty Distribution Company is making their ordeal at the hands of PHCN staff look like a tea party.
Although the staff of this company have been flooding the area with huge bills, last month (May), they took their extortionist tendencies to a most ridiculous extent. They just sat in their offices and allocated unspeakably fat bills to the hapless people in that area, thereby causing a lot of outcry from the people.
The arrogance of their staff as people left their work and business places and trooped to their offices to complain about the horribly inflated bills in the face of egregiously dismal services was grossly repelling – like adding salt to an injury; extremely offensive. They spoke as if the government has handed Nigerians in that area over to them to treat the way they like. Even though many of the people have functional meters, it was clear that they no longer rely on the meters to issue their bills. This writer also went there to ascertain what was happening, and when he enquired from one of their workers why they should clamp such huge bills upon the people, she just said that there was some “improvement” in electricity supply in May and so the bills must of necessity go up. When she was asked whether they relied on the meters to achieve the figures in those bills, she just ignored the question and looked away. Her indifference was insufferable.
Now, the staff of this company are invading people’s homes seeking to determine the number of electrical appliances they possess in order to “assess them properly.” One of them said they were given a huge amount of money as target to meet every month; so that is why they are terrorizing people.
While still at their office, a woman told me that her landlord has been disconnected from the public power supply, and that the man had for a few months now vacated the building, leaving it unoccupied, yet the huge bills have continued to arrive. What it means now is that once someone rents that apartment, they would compel him to offset the bills. It also supports the belief that all they do is just to sit at their offices and impose “levies” on people. I also learnt that a popular photographer in the area has told them to excuse him with their electricity, that it was cheaper and more effective for him to power his studio with his generator instead of paying their jumbo bills and still using his generator most of the time. Although, I have not confirmed this, I am sure the inflated bills would still be arriving at the man’s studio. That is the tragedy of this hour.
In many civilized countries, a president can score a great credit for himself by showing that he could be touched by an outcry such as this and personally intervene in a matter that touches the people even if it is in a very remote area of his country. What happened in this area of Lagos in May would certainly repeat in June and might continue. And as the people groan under the weight of these inflated bills, they would continue to heap their anger and frustration on the present administration. The president should therefore use this outrageous billing system currently flourishing in the former Sanya Undertaking in Aguda to ascertain what is happening across the country. He should set up a special panel that would report directly to him to come to the area and inspect the bills and meters of the residents and interview some of them to see the kind of unqualified cruelty some people are visiting on others just because they want to be paid heavily for services they hardly rendered.
Now assuming it is true that there were some “improvement” in electricity supply, does that justify the arbitrary allocation of bills to consumers instead of relying on the meter? Is this not a grievous abuse of the business opportunity given to them? No responsible government should abandon its people to greedy business men to treat them as they like.
The solution would have been pre-paid meters. Initially, they were issued to Nigerians free of charge, but that arrangement was halted. Now, its price has been placed far beyond the reach of the average Nigerian. Something must be done urgently to make pre-paid meters available to Nigerians. By the way, are these companies operating without any form of control? So they are just free to treat Nigerians like conquered victims? It is in the interest of this government to show clearly that it is not on the side of these exploiters against the people. There should be codes of operations for these companies and a provision to revoke licenses for exceeding boundaries. The president must act fast before his political opponents exploit the situation to compound his image problems.
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