Fashola’s Love Letter By Louis Odion, FNGE

Three-In-One Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola & Wife, Dame Abimbola Fashola….’Can BRF sustain the tempo of this love letter?

From Ibadan Monday came
a report that should comfort long-suffering energy consumers in Nigeria. While addressing the 12th
edition of the monthly meeting of stakeholders in the power sector, 3-in-1
minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN,
spoke to the heart of the big moral question DISCOs (distribution companies)
have been unable to answer. 


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Just how fair is it for consumers to
pay for services not rendered?
The extortionate strategy is simple:
estimated billing system. In order word, whether electricity is supplied or
not, you are made to pay a fixed rate, failing which you are summarily
disconnected.

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan….PHCN was unbounded unto fraudulent DISCO Companies under his watch

Speaking that day, the former Lagos governor rose in defense of
helpless consumers by saying they have a right to resist paying for services
not enjoyed. To be sure, each time the minister explains that power
generation is hampered by lack of gas to power the plant, people can
understand. (Of course, people can also see that BRF has grown more grey hair
over sleepless nights trying to make the power plants deliver more megawatts.)

Can Buhari/Osinbajo decode the ‘Politics of the fraudulent DISCO owners?’

But what does not make sense to the
people is when the DISCOs seek to make them pay for services not delivered.
That certainly was not the promise when the nation’s power assets were
privatized years ago.
Such shylock arrangement, it must be
said, only amounts to incentivizing the bad behaviors of the DISCOs. Once they
are made to realize their revenue is tied to performance, there will be the
push to sit up.
Over the years, deadlines have been
set for the DISCOs by the power regulatory agency for consumers to be metered.
But it is always convenient and profitable for the companies to breach same.

The Author, LOUIS ODION…Suffered same fate as ordinary Nigerians from DISCO owners

This writer is a victim. One has
been waging a running battle with the DISCO in Edo State which will not supply a pre-paid meter to one’s private
residence in Benin despite repeated application. One had paid for a meter
replacement to the old PHCN after the existing one got blown up by power surge.
On assumption, the Benin DISCO said
they didn’t have the records. So, it was convenient to begin to drop estimated
bill at the gate monthly even when the cumulative energy supply for 30 days
would probably not exceed 24 hours! Truth is: for our energy need, we depend
largely on our own mini “power plant” of two weather-beaten
generating sets with the public supply as a mere “back up”. 
Not content with the extortion by
“estimated bill”, the Benin DISCO later expanded the terror by
cooking up a “crazy bill” indicating an exponential 1,200 percent
hike of the former! It took a personal call to the highest authorities in the
Benin DISCO before the “crazy bill” was reluctantly reviewed a bit
downward. 

BRF….The Three-In-One Minister, Can he take this DISCO hoodlums to cleaners?


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Since, one has written and written,
prayed, “dry-fasted”, lobbied for just a pre-paid meter to be
supplied, even at one’s cost, without success. And we are told we cannot go out
of our ways to procure one, except the one customized by the DISCO itself. So,
one has had to draw more than a dose of the biblical Job’s patience to endure
all the shenanigans of the Benin DISCO ever since.
With Fashola’s Monday declaration,
one sincerely hopes the DISCOs will realize the game is finally up. We cannot
be talking of efficiency in the sector if emphasis is how much return the
DISCOs make on their investment without anyone asking how much value they bring
to the table.
Thank you, BRF.