Mr. Shadrack Akinbodunse is the Principal Partner of Utilities Consumers Rights Advocacy Initiative of Nigeria. He joined the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and served in many districts of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), cutting across the present day Kogi, Kwara, Osun and Oyo states.  In this interview with ROTIMI AGBOLUAJE, he spoke on the removal of power from Exclusive Legislative list and other issues affecting the sector. 

What’s your take on the new energy tariff regime initiated by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)?
With this increase, government is trying to tell Nigerians they are putting subsidy on electricity. I’m not saying there is no subsidy, but government has not come out to tell us the actual unit of electricity they are subsidising. We need to have the actual unit cost of the product before we can ascertain if it is high. This will enable us to understand if some people are feeding fat on the sector as it happened in the petroleum sector.

It was quite understandable when this administration removed subsidy on fuel. There was no eyebrow because a lot of people were feeding fat on it. If the government had made the current issue on electricity public like that of fuel, it would have been a different thing. I am not happy about it, but the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) held brief with Consumers Advocacy Groups recently on it.

We heard from the Vice Chairman of NERC, Musiliu Oseni, that they were trying to make us the police of the sector. But we ought to have been in this position a long time, I am talking from experience. The commission made us to understand the challenges facing the industry and that the only saving grace is to increase tariff on Band A.

I made the commission to understand that there can never be customers using 20 hours of electricity, except, if you, as a private customer, who bought a breaker and put it in to radiate the light at your end to your side. That means, no one is joining your light. 

With this, you own it by yourself. That is when you can be assured of a 24-hour electricity. However, everything is still subject to energy allocation from the power company to with what we are on the ground.
 
I don’t think there is a steady allocation to any station that can create a gap that will give anybody a 20-hour supply. I made them to understand that what the DisCos used to do is that they name-tag the existing feeders that were inherited by the power company.

To radiate is to strengthen another line from any station. All they need to do is name-tag. They can share an old feeder and stay on the same line. The DisCos are not to be trusted on that and the NERC too are not working in the sense that they cannot just be in Abuja and be thinking that what the DisCos are just doing is good. They don’t have people that can do investigation for them. That is why we are being invited as their CSOs to come and be their police. 

What is wrong with the new structure of the generating companies, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Distribution companies? 
There is no improvement on the part of the transmission. Unfortunately, that transmission belongs to the Federal Government and if that should be the case, we don’t know who is fooling who. Now coming to the DisCos, they will tell you that they only put up light to people according to the allocation from TCN.  

How true is it that we are giving power to Burkina Faso?
I only know about the Niger Republic but that of Burkina Faso, I am not sure. 
 
How can Nigeria improve its energy service delivery? 
This can be done by cascading power generation, transmission and distribution into smaller units to operate independently. The only way we can improve services is to build on the removal of power supply from the Exclusive Legislative List. To actually reap the benefits of this step, Nigeria needs to know more about electricity.

Number one, apart from removing it from the Exclusive List, we should be able to sensitise Nigerians on the need to have private independent power plants that will give us energy. That is why I am looking at the recent tariff increase; it is from the angle that it will entice private investors into the sector. It is only when we have cascaded energy generation, transmission and distribution that people will be happy.

For instance in Ibadan, if any company is ready to give us 24 hours power supply, we should be happy to take it. If it is at N300 per KW, we will pay. We are tired of the noise of generators. If Nigeria can fix power, it would have fixed the major problem plaguing the country.

What is the dispute about billing?
There’s always billing dispute. IBEDC over-billed a hospital to the tune of over N88m. The University College Hospital (UCH) should be metered and billed separately.
 
What is the law guiding disconnection of power supply? 
There must be 10 days notification, but in the case of UCH, the step was sacrilegious.
 
What is your take on how IBEDC treated UCH? 
The hospital was treated shabbily by IBEDC. The way UCH was disconnected is wrong. It doesn’t have any other name, it is bad. There is an extant law that forbids an organisation like the UCH to be disconnected. The NERC Customers Protection Regulations 2003, Chapter 2, Section 25(22), says that a distribution company shall not disconnect electricity supply to any premises where it is aware that life-supporting machine is in use.

A customer that has life-supporting machines installed at the premises shall enter into an acceptable agreement with the distribution company for the settlement of their bills. Or the distribution company may seek the recovery of this debt due by other legal means. Succinctly put, the disconnection of UCH was illegal. This shows that IBEDC has not done well.
 
Is there any remedy for UCH?
There is a remedy for the UCH, but we are doing it in such a way that we don’t want to go into legal tussle. When the issue arose, I was called by the UCH to come and do one or two things. Having gone through their rules, I discovered that UCH has been overbilled to the turn of N88m out of the said amount. 

To be sincere, UCH is not the only institution that is occupying that place; there is College of Medicine, which belongs to the University of Ibadan. And there are halls of residence there too. Up till now, the College of Medicine has not paid UCH because it belongs to the Federal Ministry of Education, while UCH belongs to the Federal Ministry of Health and to worsen the entire situation, instead of labour unions to come together and see how to resolve the matter, they threatened the management. I see that as a bad labour act and practice to have happened in the history of labour unionism.
  
We have been to NERC adjudication, it has such power. We want to see the mandate that the NERC will give to us. Before the end of the month, we will hear from NERC. They will call for a meeting.