Flashback 2003; NEPA: Liberating the hostages! - Ik Muo, PhD

Flashback 2003; NEPA: Liberating the hostages!

Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU                                muoigbo@yahoo.com, ik.muo@oouagoiwoye.edu.ng, 08033026625

I started this ministry of writing and minding other peoples’ business in 1978,(41 years ago) as a Year 2 student at UI. Since then, I have recorded history on the go, critiqued public programmes and policies, drawing attention to the follies, foibles and lies of public officials and at times, throwing darts here and there. In all these, I have tried to remove seriousness from these obviously serious issues, making readers relaxed as they read through very painful and calamitous events and issues. One of my greatest frustrations in the past 41 years is that anytime I compared the ‘was’ with the ‘is’, the ‘was’ had always been better than the ‘is’, or at worst, they are the same. this shows, quite unfortunately, that we are moving forward backwardly! Just read an article I wrote about NEPA on 5/2/03,( 16 years ago!) in which I had pleaded with NEPA to liberate the hostages. Now read on and you see that rather than making progress, we just poured old wine in new wineskin and this complicated our problems. 

In a classical article written in 1995 (Why Satisfied Customers Defect, Harvard Business Review November-December) Jone and Saser analyzed customer satisfaction and loyalty and categorized customers into six. Three of these categories are of the greatest interest to me. These are Apostles (customers who are so satisfied that they broadcast the good news everywhere), Terrorists (customers who have had bad experiences and they also broadcast it with reckless abandon) and the Hostages (Customers who patronize an organization because they have no choice or the choice is neither feasible nor viable thereby making it a no choice). As things stand now, we are all HOSTAGES to NEPA, we are their customers because we have no choice.

In my last treatise on NEPA (NEPA, Beyond The MEGAWATTS, BUSINESS DAY, 14/1/02) I had argued that whereas it was important to increase the generating capacity of NEPA, it was even more important to give NEPA, a HUMAN FACE, for the organization to adopt customer friendly policies and practices if it would continue to exist and grow. Unfortunately, it appears we are losing on both fronts. Recent reports indicate that the “Megawatts” have gone dangerously so low as to threaten national survival and not much has improved on the customer services front gong by the new year treat, I received from NEPA.

Late last year I received a NEPA bill and promptly settled it despite some misgiving about its magnitude. To make things easy for the almighty NEPA staff who are too big to move about with their own records, a copy of the bill was pasted at the gate. That was the most recent bill from NEPA. On 13/1/03, NEPA disconnected my light precisely for that same bill. As usual, they sneaked in when there was nobody in the house. My wife came in before me noticed what had transpired, picked up the original copy of the receipt and went after the NEPA Boys. When efforts to track them down after hours yielded no fruits, she reported to the manager in the office who promised that they would reconnect the light immediately. That “immediately” happened to be about 3:00 pm the following day and that was after another round of running after NEPA staff and reporting at the office.

And from my precious experience and that of others, there is nothing new about that. NEPA would come when you are not at home, disconnect your light because you are not there to prove that you have paid and when you bring evidence of payment, a ding- dong affair commences before the reconnection. This is so because once they finish “dealing” with an area, they disappear from that axis, knowing that angry customers would surely be out for them. An institution and its people who are supposed to “show the light” thus become agents of darkness. I feel sad about my experience because I have done everything possible to avoid this embarrassment. I pay my bills on receipt and at times I even go to pick the bills from their office. And because you are as guilty as your neighbor who has not paid, I have had to install a separate line to my meter and I had to indicate “Separate line” on the copies of the bill pasted on the walls always. Yet, anytime NEPA is “on duty” we suffer disconnection expect when an adult is in the house to plead, convince, threaten, prove or cajole and that is very rare because they usually strike at a period when no healthy person would be at home.

Even if one were owning, how can NEPA in this on-line day and age resort to such an uncivilized, crude, gorilla-warfare method of relating with its customers? And they do so with nonchalance, rudeness and lack of human feeling because we are all hostages! The article referred to earlier advised organizations like NEPA to treat the hostages well so that whenever they are set free they may still willingly patronize them. We are all remember those days when the “30 Million Viewers” had to take whatever NTA had to offer, we remember when people went to the airport with their mats because no one was sure when Nigeria Airways would show up, we remember those days when customers had to keep vigil at NITEL offices so as to be early enough to get the attention of arrogant NITEL staff. All these are now in the past tense.

For NEPA, we shall one day also be saying gone are the days. NEPA is the only organization in the world that suffers from “EXCESS CUSTOMERS SYNDROME”. Their only problem is that there are too many customers to serve and that is what every organization worldwide is praying for. It is obvious that NEPA as it is today does not belong to age.They supply more darkness than light, they cannot manage the numerous customers whom circumstances have created for them and they do not even have time for the customers. They don’t have time to prepare and dispatch bills, they don’t have time to read the meters; they don’t have time to record what you have paid, they don’t have time to even know who has paid. The only thing they have time to do is to march down like a conquering army, disconnecting peoples’ light right, left and centre and enjoying the humiliation and suffering that result therefrom.

We, the hostages have had enough, and all we are saying is please, LIBERATE THE HOSTAGES. NEPA should be privatized and the sector be liberalized so that we should have a choice. The only provision is that it should be done transparently and in the National interest, that is the only way to set the hostages free.

Well, indeed, gone are the days! NEPA has been privatized and has transformed to PHCN to Gencos, Discos, Transcos et al.  You can now  compare the situation in 2003 with the situation now and draw your own conclusions. Obviously, we have simply poured old wine in a new wineskin!

Other matters: Cultural Risorgimento or the fear of the gods…

Sometimes ago, the police arrested and detained the Chief Priest of Okhuaihe shrine, Osarodion Usuanlele, the Ohen N’ Ukoni Neyedo, in Benin. This detention desecrated an age-long tradition that the priest should never enter Benin, the abode of the Oba. Three dogs were sacrificed in the neighbourhood  of the police HQ before the priest was released. The police authority was also given a list including 14  native cows, tortoise, and other animals for further cleansing of the desecrated land. I cannot confirm whether the police complied but your guess is as good as mine. Just the other day, a strange report emanated from Akwa-Ibom state. Residents now fasten charms and allied fetish items on properties marked for demolition to scare  away government officials from demolishing their properties.

 I don’t know whether this strategy worked or not. Again, the authorities of Olabisi Onabanjo University declared Friday, 5/7/19 a lecture free day because of the agemo festival holding in Ijebuland that day. Females are not authorized to behold the agemo ‘spirit’. My question then is: what is happening? Are we witnessing a cultural Risorgimento? Or are our people having more regard for the gods than government agencies and authorities?

Anyway, while pondering over this, I will ordered this scary charm from the amadioha priests to fasten on my electricity poles and meter. You see, even though I am on prepaid meter, DisCO people have disconnected my lights at least twice in recent times! You should also try this option;  lets see the reaction of these disconnection-happy DisCo staff!