Estimated bills we used to see before, we
shall see no more( Exodus, 14:13
In the last week
of January, 2022, I surveyed the socioeconomic environment and concluded that the best way to hammer
for the year (so as to have life in abundance) was to join SARS(How to Hammer in 2022: I Will join SARS!!!24/1/22) Before I arrived at that
decision, I undertook feasibility and
viability studies of various emergent
businesses, including Masquarading, Pastorpreneurship,
dealership in vintage apartments (to be adopted by UNESCO as heritage sites) and even
joining the original SARS( State Anti Rovbbery Squard). The SARs I had planned
to join was the ‘State Aided
Robbery Squad’, a band of ferocious and rapacious robbery
gangs established, empowered and protected by the state. The author and
finisher of the concept is Pastor Tunde Bakare (I have not heard much of and
from him in this period of acute
TINUBUlation), who expounded on it in a speech he delivered on 25/10/20 titled ‘Building
blocks of nationhood; a blueprint for a new Nigeria’.
Building upon that treatise, I hereby propound the Duality theory of SARS. Anybody, except the proverbial visitor to Jerusalem, knows that we live in a rentier economy, in which people make obscene money by looting the public patrimony through the instrumentality of various tiers of Government. Budgets and contracts are padded, waivers harmful to the economy are granted, monies are paid to ghost contractors for unknown contracts, people align with outsiders to extort the government excessively, estacodes for foreign tours are paid to people who are resting in their villages, ghost workers are paid and even promoted as and when due and people who resigned years previously continue receiving salaries. These are all variants of SARS but they are the Macro-SARS; our money is thieved at and from the top. In this case, ALL of us are collective losers but nobody lost the money personally. So, the criminality is very far away, and most often, those involved in the lootocracy will come down at our level and use the money to oppress us, like the benevolent thief who stole an elder’s money inside a bus and ‘compassionately’ paid his fare when the elder was stranded. Examples of Macro-SARS include budget padding at federal and state levels, subsidy , fuel import and TAM racketeering, wholesale looting at NNPC and NNDC and various acts of Emefieleism (printing money which develops wings and flies away). Even today, Cardosoism has replaced Emefielesim, because money is still be printed in bounteous quantum.
Then who have Micro-SARS, in which the state empowers and protects people and institutions to steal directly from the people, without any compunction and in broad daylight. In this case, the institution or individual undertaking the robbery is known and the people from whom it is stollen are known. The individuals, or groups of individuals are openly defrauded, they experience the loss and the pain but because the robbery is aided by the state, there is not much you can do. That is where NAPA, PHCN and those who dance disco in the dark, without lights or with our lights belong. Filling stations also do that to a small extent but they cannot come to your house to rob you, it is when you go to their business premises that you are robbed through misaligned meters or refusing to sell whenever prices are reduced ( which is rare), but they will implement any price increase before it becomes operative. Oluomo and his gang , and ALL IGR contractors are also involved in micro-SARS. The case of NEPA and its offspring is so bad that it is an Economic offence to disturb them when they are stealing from you. About 25 years ago, at Dele-Orisabiyi Street, Okota Lagos, NEPA people disconnected my light even though I was not owing. They claimed that they could not differentiate those who were owing from those who were not owing( we were just 3 in the compound) . If NEPArians who installed the light did not know who was indebted to it, how did they expect me to know? Anyway, I blocked the street with my tuke-tuke, preventing them, and anybody else, from leaving. They had the audacity to accuse me of economic offence and threatened to send me to the Economic and miscellaneous offences Tribunal!
Anyway, NEPA and its offspring are the greatest players in the micro-SARS arena and in that arena, Estimated Billing is the quintessence of Micro-SARS. I will start with a small experience I had at Ijebuode in 2021. ‘I came in Sunday,15/1/21 and learnt from the landlord that our transformer had been vandalized and that the cables in and around it were missing in action. Both of us agreed that an enemy would have done this ( Math, 13:28)and that the enemies could only be those who understood the dynamics of, and had access to, transformers. Two days later, the street levied every house and every individual so as to revive the transformer. One of the managers (or damagers) of the DISCO told my landlord that if we did not contribute for the refurbishing, then we would revert to the dark ages and that nothing would come of it if we protested to their HQ. When he asked the damager about the loss of income to IEDC, the man unabashedly replied: that one no concern me! It is the statement of someone with salary-mindset; an owner minded fellow would not have said so. Of course, they reap where they did not sow.
You buy poles, wire, transformer, meter, pay for labour hire and transport the ladder and they just wait for you with a matchet at the amen (the end of the chain) , to slice as much as they like from your pocket and disconnect you and seize the wire (which you bought with your own money), when you do not pay early enough. And the state would provide cover for such outright thievery! No; this is more than thievery; it is robbery and brigandage. NEPA, PHCN, Discos are the most visible members of the Micro-SARS. EVERYTHING about ECN, NEPA, PHCN and DISCO is embedded in CRIMINALITY. Incidentally, as the DISCOS are dealing ruthlessly with us, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission informed us sometimes ago that Togo and others did not pay anything for the power supplied by Nigeria!
Now coming to my recent experience that birthed this treatise, my family has a branch office at Ogbor-Hill axis of Aba: a two bedroom flat with a medium size fridge and two standing fans. The estimated bill rose from N10,000 to N13000 to N17000 to N20000 to N20k+ monthly, even when there was light lock-down. In April-June of 2024 the bill amounted to N80000+ but the issue is that for two months( May and June) when NOBODY was in the house, we paid a bill of N50000+! N50000 electricity bill for a two bedroom flat for two months when it was under lock and key!!! What type of state-sponsored criminality will surpass this? Any way, if Mahmood were to be the operator, he would have dared you to go to court!
On 12/7/23, the whole neighbourhood exploded in tumultuous, unrestrained joy as the staff of Aba Power invaded the place like a swarm of bees, installing prepaid meters democratically-in every flat/compound. No payment was made, except that the tenants were expected to have separated their lines. The six flat compound appreciated the people with N5000 voluntarily. Well, the Egyptians you saw before, you will see no more but not so soon because that was not the end.
Our own apartment
did not have light for almost 2 weeks after the installation because of some wiring issues. It involved jumping
upadan, phone-calls, pleas
and extortionary exchanges before it was sorted out. We also had an
outstanding bill of N200000 and nobody explained how it came to be because even those who were
professionally indebted had about N100000 outstanding… all estimates. Eventually,
N108000 was paid out of which we received an electricity
credit of N10,000 without any basis or explanation or justification.
But more signs and wonders awaited us and the greatest was in connection with the
pumping machine, that was metered the same time with others. It had an accumulated
bill of N69000!!! How come? The
unbelievable explanation was that the
metre was activated about 2 months previously when the landlord requested for
Prepaid meters and as such, they operationalised the billing. How can a prepaid
meter for a sumo that had not been fired before come with a bill of 69000? The
response from Aba Power was if you don’t pay, then forget about it.
They even threatened to confiscate ALL
the pumping machines for which payment had not been made. There was even a tenant who paid via POS brought in by the meter-installers and was
assured that they would send in her receipts later. They did not issue any receipt and she was ordered to
pay the money or forget about light ( their regular statement) And she
paid… twice!
The community has been rescued from the stranglehold
and criminality of estimated billing. The N10000 we recharged 2 months
ago is still operative and I know that we would have paid more than N50000
since then! But the bitterness of estimated billing, including for houses under
lock and key, will live for a VERY long time
NERC BOMBs AEDC
Meanwhile, a new
development has affirmed my position on the wickedness of estimated billing
practices and have given hope for the future.
On 30/8/24, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission imposed a HEAVY and HISTORIC fine of N1.69bn on Abuja Disco
for overbilling its customers(‘Order NERC/2024/114’)!!! The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ‘earned’ this fine by violating the NERC order on the
capping of estimated billings for customers!
This has shown that the estimated billing industry is alive and waxing
stronger. This has also shown that there is hope for the future if NERC
continues to bark and bite. As for the son of man, the weeping prophet, I
derive my inspiration form Proverbs, 10:10 Somebody who holds back the
truth causes trouble but he who openly criticises works for peace. By
drawing attention to these lapses, social ills and in this instance, exposing
the evils of this variant of SARS, I am working for peace! And sure, I am blessed
as a peace-maker( Mathew,5.9)!
Meanwhile, look at the two images in the very beginning of this article. The first shows how complicated the simple matter of electricity distribution has become in Nigeria. The second shows a masquerade gyrating on top of our electric poles and wires, showing how active these instruments of power distribution are!!! You may wish to laugh it over but these are SERIOUS indicators of our electricity-poverty index!
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“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine
Entrepreneurship in Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view Available for order +2348033026625 | Delivery: Worldwide
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