Substandard Power Grid. Source: Seaart.
I connected to the national grid in 2014. I was on
estimated billing. Eventually, my meter came in 2017. I noticed I needed 32
units of electricity every month. I kept adding the gadgets I needed to live a cosy
life. My consumption rose to about 90 units a month. With the current categorized
billing tariff that puts me on Band A, I have to pay about twenty thousand
naira every month. I am law-abiding. So,
I have accepted it, despite the tariff digging a huge hole in my pocket.
Now, though, I coil and boil when I see neighbours
using all manner of gadgets and paying five times less than I pay because they
are on estimated billings. The feeling I get is that I am paying for the
neighbours who don’t have meters. This is the first suicidal mistake of the
power distribution companies.
When power consumers started getting categorized into
bands so that consumers on Band A pay a thousand naira for just 4.4 units of
electricity, it was on the condition that the distribution companies supply at
least 20 hours of electricity a day. Should the distribution company fail to
live up to the contract, there should be an automatic reversal to the old status.
The distribution companies lived up to the agreement for a couple of months. Then
the national grid started experiencing failures lasting for weeks. Yet, there
hasn’t been any reversal of the tariff as was agreed. The failure to live up to
terms of an agreement is suicidal mistake number two.
It is the duty of power distribution companies to
take electric power to communities –they are the distribution companies. That
is never done. Power consumers by poles and cables and still pay staff of power
distribution companies for installations. It also means that the companies are
not interested in improving on their operations. This is suicidal mistake
number three.
Despite the huge profits power distribution companies
declare (over a trillion naira by the end of 2023), they are still not
interested in improving working conditions for their staff. The offices look
very filthy and unbefitting for humans. Salaries are still extremely poor with
the workers not being able to pay bills. The result is that the staff have
joined hands with defrauded consumers and directives from the top don’t ever sink
down to the bottom where it is intended. The consumers prefer to pay field
staff so they get soft landings. Refusing to improve staff welfare in the midst
of plenty is the most suicidal mistake of the distribution companies.
Proverb 15 verse 27 says: he that is greedy of gain
troubleth his own house.
