29042019 - Economy bleeds as power system collapses

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2019
THE overwhelming importance of
estimated electricity billing, otherwise
known as “crazy bills”, was
demonstrated when a bill sponsored by
the Majority Leader of the House of
Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila,
received the unanimous support of
lawmakers across party lines at its third
reading in the House of
Representatives. It was later forwarded
to the Senate for further legislative
input.
Known as The Electricity Power
Reform Act (Amendment Bill) 2018, it
prohibits estimated billing by the Power
Distribution Companies, DISCOs.
It mandates them to provide
consumers with meters within 30 days
of extending their services to them,
failing which fines of between N500,000
to one million naira are prescribed, or
a six-month jail term or both. It also
protects the consumers from arbitrary
disconnection. The original intention of
privatising the downstream of the
War against energy crazy bills
Power sector for more efficient service
provision almost five years ago, rather
than being a dream come true, has
resulted to nightmares for hapless
consumers. The service providers have
proved their incompetence and lack of
financial capacity to re-enact the
revolution in the telecom sector which
had prompted the sale of the assets of
the defunct Power Holding Company
of Nigeria, PHCN, to private investors.
The DISCOs have continued the
inefficiency, impunity, callousness,
corruption and predatory reflexes of
the defunct PCHN. They deliberately
foot-drag in the provision of meters.
Instead, they prefer to issue baseless
crazy bills even when they fail to
deliver the electricity.
It is unfortunate that the industry
regulator, the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Agency, NERC, which had
failed to respond to the distress calls
of exploited consumers, has taken up
the battle against this customer
protection Bill.
NERC appears more interested in
protecting the interests of the power
service providers.
We must make it abundantly clear
that there will be no electricity without
the service providers and paying
consumers. Both sides deserve
adequate protection. The only sensible
and just way of carrying both sides along
is to ensure that every power consumer
is metered as soon as they become
customers. Anyone who steals power
must be punished according to the law,
and no power provider should issue bills
except through metering.
This is the work of government
regulators which the NERC and other
authorities have failed to do, leaving the
consumers at the mercy of corrupt and
incompetent power companies and their
often cruel staff. We call on the National
Assembly, NERC and other concerned
bodies to close ranks and end estimated
billing in the power industry.
Every power consumer has the right
to be metered; they also have an
obligation to pay their bills promptly to
enable the power companies survive and
thrive. Perhaps, it is time to
comprehensively reassess the power
sector and address all concerns
hampering its growth.
OPINION
Towards reforming Nigeria’s policing system
By Kehinde Akinfenwa
THE primary institution in the
frontline of combating security
challenges in the country is the Nigeria
Police Force, NPF, which according to the
Constitution has exclusive jurisdiction to
protect lives and property by fighting crime
and maintaining law and order.
Regrettably, however, of all public
institutions whose record of ineptitude is
prominent across the country, the NPF remains
a customary point of reference.
There is no crime that is alien to the police
force: from extortion, to rape, to
murder, to kidnapping, to conspiracy; they
are never far away from any atrocities one
can think of. An average police officer is
perceived more as a merchant of
oppression than the protector of law and
order with penchant to commit crime than
to prevent it. Pitifully, these uncivilised
demeanours are well acknowledged even
within the force fraternity.
Sadly, all these unruly acts have
witnessed an upward trajectory in recent
years. According to Segun Adeniyi, what
we have now are assassins in police
uniform who are passionate to dispense
bullets on innocent citizens.
The quantum of impunity that exists in
the policing system is capable of instigating
civil revolt as such dastardly experiences
are becoming unbearable. It is rather
disheartening that the force has plummeted
from being one of the pillars of grace
and service to a cathedral of dishonesty as
it is fast becoming a citadel of illegality
and institutional dissipation.
However, we will be hallucinating not to
admit that this perplexing situation is the
product of the infirmity in our nation. The
endemic maladministration in governance
has been a springboard to the menace of
this institution.
Criminogenic problems like
unemployment, poor education and ethnic
tensions have significant implications for
social disorder and crime as the force
struggles to contend with the realities of
the emerging security challenges. It is
absurd that a 21st Century police force is
still battling with mundane challenges of
improper training and skills, inadequate
work force, lack of modern gadgets,
political intrusion, poor working
conditions, incompetence, poor
remuneration, to mention a few.
Presently, the vast rate of armed
muggings, burglaries, homicide, roadblock
robberies and armed break-ins, local
and international swindles, kidnapping,
terrorism, hooliganism, militancy, drug
peddling and the likes are the outgrowth
of our unconscious society.
Lamentably, however, the police cannot
really ensure effective security as it
commands only about 371,800 official
personnel out of which over 70 per cent
are providing personal security for
prominent individuals. In a nation of over
190 million people with associated socioeconomic
and cultural problems, having
an underfunded, ill-equipped and
understaffed policing system is already an
invitation to a lawless society.
Globally, the potent parameters used to
assess the proficiency and effectiveness of
any police force is to consider its ability
to fight crime, resources at its disposal,
equipment and apparatus available to it
in the discharge of its duties, fewest shots
fired by them in a year and fewest persons
beaten, shot and killed, strides taken in
public protection and its efforts towards
the protection of vulnerable persons.
The NPF is in dire need of fundamental
reforms where its operational and
intelligence structure will be engaged in
contemporary discourse. Policing is today
a multi-faceted phenomenon where the
responsibility of the state and the right of
citizenry are effectively managed. This
has brought about an instigating shift
The nucleus of the
proposed reforms should be
on recharging the rectitude
of policing system by
calling to the fore the
patriotic value and heroic
quality that those donning
the police uniform must
possess
from the traditional model of law enforcing
to crime preventing and community
safety in order to play a key part in the
renewal of social democratic level.
Referencing the Police Reform Bill
which has just passed second reading in
the National Assembly, modernising the
institution towards aligning with global
practice is a logical step in the rebuilding
process. But for it not to be a mere cosmetic
proposition there is compelling need to
address the organic disorder that is abetting
the viscous abuse that has characterised the
law enforcement agency. The police force
is a service to humanity but the sordid reality
in this part of the world is that many of those
individuals donning our force attire have
taken up the responsibility by default,
thereby lacking the right attitude and the
needed character that dignifies the
profession worldwide.
Therefore, the nucleus of the proposed
reforms should be on recharging the
rectitude of policing system by calling to
the fore the patriotic value and heroic quality
that those donning the police uniform
must possess. In ensuring the system is amenable
to 21st Century codes of policing, officers
must be trained to think beyond the
gun-belt in their attempt to build a crimefree
society.
Building an affable and emblazoned policing
system requires ardent involvement
of every sector of the society because public
security is a symbiotic project that promotes
socio-economic development. Hence, as
individuals, organisations, groups and communities,
we must establish a participatory
platform on social security through which
we can hold the police force accountable
for their action against the society. That patriotic,
responsible, selfless, incorruptible,
committed and courageous police officer
we all desire is an invention of shared responsibility.
God bless Nigeria.
•Akinfenwa is of the Ministry of
Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja