Faces &Culture with Olusegun Ariyo Email Olusegunariyo@urbanexpresslive.com 08023936827
Shortly after the taken over of power holdings sometime in October few years back by the private sectors, I gathered some few contemporaries to discuss the advantages and other form of developments that we should be expecting in the change of baton from public to private sectors in the distribution and regeneration of power supply even though the regulation and Transmission policy redirection still lies with government which indeed remains the norms in the world over if any government parastatals of this kind must be privatized. Some were in agreement of the decision of government to privatize given the persistency of in-efficiency it has turned out to be over the years, while the rest believes it should rather be strengthened with more legislative backing especially in the areas of regulation, expectation and management.
The first entry point here is whether it has been efficient so far since it’s taken over last year in October. My experience until recently, turned out to be an eye opener on the issue of in-efficiency that some of my colleague gave as their own perception in their reasoning not to allow it go into private hands, and even after given it to private hands, the inconsistency in that direction still continues. An invite was sent in from Abesan community to This-day news paper’s office, coming from those octogenarians who had long retired from the civil service.
On getting there, they gave an account of how Akowonjo Distribution unit under Ikeja Distribution Company had been maltreating them and said to me that they were in actual sense on their way to Akowonjo where their office is located to register a peaceful protest and demands my presence, but before then, they gave in narrative, what went wrong that resolve their decision of going for peaceful protest to which they decided to bring in the media to register their grouse. Narrating their experience, they went further, alleging that the distribution company had since been serving them with crazy bills with which cannot be justified with what they were generating as energy sources from Ikeja distribution.
One of them Mr. Adekunle Mathew said his own challenge was that when one of their representative came and said that his meter counting is low, and cannot be able to give an accurate amount and the reason it must be estimated, it sounded strange hearing the word ‘’estimate’’, While others claim they were not even in the know of anything and that in so many occasion they have sent in representatives and that they never got any response, but the agent of the distribution company will only come when the need arises and gave unwarranted bills hence their resolve to join the peaceful protest.
Continuing, Mr. Mathew said also that he had bought the meter since 1986, and that there was a caveat on the receipt issued that says ‘’the property that the [meter] belongs to the government, and that under no circumstance would any individual who is not from the power holding be found touching, making any-form of change without the prior permission of the authority’’ he now ask if it was normal to do anything on it other than those who truly owns it, While the protest was on, they the resident of Abesan demand to see the manager in charge to come and address them, after much heated debates on both side in other to give room and allow their representative to address them since the manger was actually not on ground, and where they eventually allowed one Mrs. Ekah, the marketing manager to speak with them, that was after delivering their own side of grievances.
in response, the representatives told the large crowed that they were going to resolve the issue, with a promise that it will get to the root of the matter praising their courage and said even though we have some of us who has more source of generating unit but decided to shelve it off and re-align the connection to the direct source but then, that won’t hinder our resolve, the representative hinted’.
The protest was indeed peaceful from the starting till the end after which people resolve to accept what the representative of the distributor company told them.
In ensuring to unravel more facts, put my journalistic instinct to play when I decided to investigate further to understand what was the conceivable idea behind the meaning of the word ‘’estimate’’ and the reasons that it was adopted as tool for sharing what is used from their power energy source. From findings, it was revealed that what they did is simply that in the case when some residences are in- accessible, estimate is usually the nest option, if that individual’s meter is low or not reading, what they resolved to is ‘’Estimate’’ and that whenever those residents are vacant, they put the word ‘’m’’ to signify that nobody resides, there at present. When asked that what if someone now happens to occupy, how would they know’’ he said they would know when bills are brought for payments and that estimate is usually done with assumption, and that is what leads to what some of their customers describes as crazy bills.
The pointer here is that the challenges of inefficiency that form part of the reason the government sold the power sector to private hands still far persist. Even though I will want to agree to some degrees of extent with my contemporary who believes there are the challenges of in-efficiency that boarders on managements, sabotage and corruption.
What we are seeing now that inter plays, how then do we differentiate it from when it was in government hands’’ the development seems more horrific given the situation now where those in charge are more interested in what they stand to gain other that efficiency in service delivery to their customers.
For instance, why should, all because of not being able to gain access into residents, and what to resolved to at best alternative is there so-called estimate. What would it take the distribution company to have a data bank to be saddled with the responsibility of managing, interpreting and updating their data periodically? For it to know those apartments are vacant, that is having hall of residence, or those that are having more than expected in there generating units and decides to sabotage its efforts and ask for heavy sanction that is backed by law to serve as deterrent to others.
Given it to private sector to me, should not be in bad perception but ensuring functional system has been the bane in both the public and private sectors of our economy is rather of essence.
Another Sharpe focus is about the other views of my other contemporaries who gave lack of legislative backings, low expectations as result of perfect policies and management challenges as their reason for it to be in the private hands are simply naive. From the narrative of the experience those octogenarians had, it seems that both the public and public sector are out there to milk the poor. The government who happens to be the regulators seems losing focus and not having good foresight yet on how to deal with regulating the crazy bill with the private sector’s lack of understandings of the status of industrial areas, and residential dwellings apart, and being in a country grappling with extreme levels of corruption as justification for the change of baton.
The legislators who are meant to oversight had not come to terms with this reality there by making the management of those private sector operatives such manner; put all what not on those octogenarians.
This, if investigated, it should not come as surprise if it is found in virtually all the settlements where some are unable to sound their voice where some believe the system itself should have been the problem rather than that which the private sectors are doing to take undue advantage off.
To my other contemporaries who believe it should be privatized, even though I share their view that it is indeed good thought in right direction, but what about having functioning system that gave excellent policies , directives and legislative backing, are we saying even if it was in government hands those appreciable lacuna found to be part of those management challenges that are expected to regulate it and are lacking, wouldn’t have been founded?, given the reason that formed part of why it was sold?
to me, having it in private hand has numerous advantages and part of it is generating more employment which we have been able to see and experience but what about the rest identified’’ the government must act now with speed in doing the needful for those octogenarians in Abesan estate to have a sense of belonging.
