Shortly after the taken over of
power holdings sometime in October 2013 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 policy redirection still lies with government which
indeed remains the norms in the world over if any government.
Continue
Parastatals of this kind must be privatized;
some were in agreement of the decision of government to privatize it given the
persist-ency 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 Eko disco had been
maltreating them and said to me that they were in actual sense on their way to
Akowonjo where there 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 eko distribution.
One of them Mr. Adekunle mattew
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.
Mr. Matthew 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 sine
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 residence are in- accessible, estimate
is usually the nest option, if that individuals 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 those 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 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 that 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 as 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 who 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 octogenarian in Abesan estate
to have a sense of belonging.
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