OLD MONSTERS IN NEW STORIES.

This is a story of a public corporation turned privately run monopoly protected by parasitic and mediocre legislation made by previous administrations in Nigeria. They claim to be overhauled but in reality have turned the public power supply sector into a money making venture in the new administration by the same old titans of industry and political thugs.

When the AEDC officials asked me for my electricity bill, I quickly picked the latest bill which read that I had been billed just over nine thousand naira for the previous month and there was an outstanding of nine thousand naira which had been accumulating over the past two months. I too was a victim of the tough times which had visited Nigerians like an uninvited guest who suddenly knocks on your door just when your wife announces that the fried rice and the two pieces of meat you had been hungrily waiting for was ready.

“Oga, we go cut your light!” the pimply faced AEDC stooge with the old looking dirty pliers said indignantly. I could feel the spit in my mouth dry up. The adrenalin began flowing through my veins. The flash backs of the hot nights I had spent chasing away blood starved mosquitoes with the plastic hand fans suddenly pounced from the well of frustration I had not realised was there. I had just moved to a new location in Abuja and was just starting to get into the groove of being newly married. 

“For what now?” I heard myself reply as the vibrations of building rage spilled from my body into my voice.

“Abi you no see say you still dey owe?” He beckoned to a well built colleague of his with a safety belt and red rubber gloves worn were they were meant to be worn. “See this bill O,” the guy said as he pointed to the printed numbers which showed the payment of five thousand naira paid a few days ago in my bid to offset the growing debt which I owed. The guy took a one second glance and made to move towards the fused plastic installations on the wall of the small veranda that is the front of my rented two bed room apartment located on the out skirts of the main city of Abuja.

“Come o, abi una no see say I don pay five thousand naira for  there?” I said blocking the path of the gloved AEDC staff with the safety belt.

“Pay wetin, that one no go stop us from cutting your light oga, we no dey accept part payment for any reason. If no be the full payment, we don get instructions from our oga say make we cut the light!” 

Then I heard a female voice call out to them, “Wetin una dey do for there, make una cut that light make we go jor, you know know say we get other places to go?” Obviously she was the voice of authority. This definitely was the oga that I need to talk to or else spend the next few days without light. I quickly made my way towards her leaving the pair by the meterless fused box.

“Madam I just pay five thousand to una some few days ago, why you dey tell them make them cut light?” It honestly felt futile but I pressed on, “At least give me time make I fit get the money to pay the full bill.” Now I was really agitated and I let it flow out of me freely. How in the world would these people act like money is something we can pluck from trees like a bunch of grapes. If I had the whole sum on me of course I would have paid if just to save me the whole embarrassment of what was every house owner or tenant’s nightmare who did not have a prepaid meter installed yet as they had promised.

“Oga, I cannot accept that money. It shows that you are a bad customer. You know say we dey on target every month. Our ogas at the top no wan know all this talk wey you dey tell us.” Addressing her stooges she ordered, obviously equally peeved at the five thousand I was claiming to have paid “Cut the light abeg!”

“Madam, if una go just install prepaid meter like my neighbours get shebi I no go dey suffer to pay this una ten thousand bill every month wey una dey charge us on top of say we no dey even get light for this area. I don apply for the prepaid meter how many months ago and yet una just abandon us to this flat rate for light we no even use sef.” I was vibrating all over now trying and hopelessly failing to use my anger to hide the fact that I was clearly begging now. Despite the pride which was now slighted with deep embarrassment I knew that I was at her mercy.

“Una don cut am?” She demanded, addressing the pair.

 “Since madam,” they said with smug smiles on their faces. 

“See Oga, make you dey pay all your bill or we go cut am every time you pay part. You know know say na monthly target we get abi? Ohooo....” She hissed leaving me helpless in her wake.

The plight faced by so many Nigerians as a result of the insensitive acts by the AEDC officials has definitely reached unprecedented levels. Gone are the days when a person could pay over fifty percent of his electricity bill and buy a few days grace and have the outstanding paid on a later date. Like predators, AEDC have become like loan sharks who loan you some electricity for a few months. The painful part is that for those who have not been blessed with the grace of a prepaid meter, they are condemned like criminals who have incurred a debt which goes bad by the end of every month. They then go further by insisting that the customers pay the whole sum at whatever units rate the company deems fit to charge. The calculation for the allocation of electricity units which is being acceded to the houses without prepaid meters is a mystery which seems to have no justification. In fact, from the vague explanations some of the lenient staff sometimes give, if there is a vulcanize on your street who uses an electric powered air pump, chances are that you are billed for the use of his machine after all, meters are not allocated to them. We have not even taken into account the illegal connections which many houses are enjoying. Ask around and you will learn that most of the illegal connections have been done by the same AEDC staff!

It baffles the mind then when one thinks of a system which has been callously and thoughtlessly created to put these AEDC marketing staff on a target based system. One may argue that their actions show that they give no consideration to the state of the Nigerian economy or that they impose a load shedding schedule which has the power off longer than supplied. To then  have the marketing staff go round like debt collectors or repo men to strong arm the poor masses who are barely making ends meet to pay top naira at a hundred percent or get disconnected basis for an amenity which they barely utilise, leaves little else to ones imagination. No wonder the staff have either refused to supply the prepaid meters or arbitrarily charge for its installation to make up for their losses! It only stands to reason that if the AEDC staff supply the prepaid meters to customers, how then would the targets be met?! The indiscriminate hike with no clear reason or apology is like a very long thorny stick which has been shoved up the asses of helpless Nigerians. Take it and be silently grateful. For those who have the means to pay for the prepaid meters which are supposedly free, succumbing to bribe the officials are better odds; even if it was just for the reprieve of purchasing units according to what one consumes as against the metered flat rates.

The whole aim of trusting people to create policies which are based on logical reasoning seems to be lost on those in the corridors of power in Nigeria. It is not too much to ask the money crazed policy makers to infuse just a third of the same effort which is expended in creating draconian policies which literary dip fang and claw into the necks of the masses with little to show but a Trojan supply of electricity. The least they could do is to understand the concept of the consumer’s mentality while considering the state of the economy and conceptualise policies which can act as a catalyst to ensuring that both sides of the table are well served. To envision a law which forces the marketing staff to perform miracles in a sector where the powers of the previously state run corporation were brought to its knees in abject failure is not only downright complacent but makes me wish we could compel these so call policy makers to a town hall meeting, strip them of their oversized and fashionably out dated agbada’s and give them a good flogging. You would say that that in itself is equally draconian. But remember the well of frustration I earlier mentioned? Well, all I can say is, that is the extent to which I feel I can get a bit of justice in return.

I can go further to suggest in the end that the system adopted for the AEDC marketing staff is a failed system like every other subsector governing the power generation, transmission and distribution body responsible for power generation in Nigeria. I could further suggest that the target method placed for the marketing staff of the AEDC may very well work for banks, insurance companies and other privately run financial institutions but not for the chimera body which is partly privatised and partly government owned. Washing a rotten egg doesn’t change the smell that will escape once the shell is cracked open. The reason why the rotten egg that is the Nigerian power sector cannot be run like the previously mention privately run financial businesses is that they do not solely rely on one stream of income, revenue or profit. While the banking sector may rely on the monies deposited by its customers by also using the marketing target system on its staff, it further diversifies into other lucrative sectors such as trading in shares and stock as well as on the FOREX platform. The Insurance companies on the other hand do not solely depend on premiums paid by its subscribers and policy holders which are secure by its marketing staff who are also on a marketing target system, on the contrary, they have equally diversified by investing in mortgages and other sectors such as health, travel and other onetime insurable services and saving schemes which provide favourable rates for its policy holders.

However, the reverse is the case for the so called power generating company in Nigeria with the AEDC in charge of distribution. The policy makers from time immemorial (the good old rotten days of NEPA) have sat in air conditioned offices, wallowing in the suppuration that is within and around them while day dreaming of and salivating for the seemingly bottomless pit where lay the thirty shekels of silver that they wring from the pockets of poor Nigerians –and by poor I mean it as an adjective and also as an adverb. Where in lies the diversity? Definitely not when their major source of income is receiving so much attention that not only have they made it cut throat by placing targets on the marketing staff, but the same staff can boldly say that unless the full hundred percent payments are made, they have been instructed to deprive you of the light without any form of compensation but a twisted sense of penal justice for not having all their money fully paid for overpriced electricity which is barely supplied beyond five hours a day.

I understand that I may just be talking for myself for there may be persons out there who will claim that they are lounging in more power than darkness like me. They would say write a petition or go fill a complaint form and let us have our peace. All I can say to them is that the eye of the draconian money grabbing beast knows no friend nor fears no foe. There were areas once which were a haven for uninterrupted power supply in this country.

Today, they are better off living in the stone-age. It is a story of a public corporation turned privately run monopoly encased in amber of parasitic and mediocre legislation and the half bread is better than non mentality we as Nigerian have come to love.

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