HEY ! QUEEN LATIFAH ! just running some stuff about HIGH ARBITRARY ELECTRICITY BILLS and an electricity distributing company called EKEDC here in NIGERIA by you [1]

been a while, beautiful lady.
how are you doing ?
i trust, Queen Latifah ormaahleechar nm, that you are all good.

there’s some stuff that’s been going down for a while now
( .. maybe since OCTOBER? 2014 .. )
here in Nigeria
regarding HIGH, ARBITRARY ELECTRICITY BILLINGS for folks
who don’t have PRE-PAID DIGITAL ELECTRICITY METERS in their buildings
located within the area of LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA
that is within the territorial space of operation of
an ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTING COMPANY
called the EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ( EKEDC ).

what it is in a nut-shell, Latifah ohbee nm, is this :

● folks here in LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA need electricity in their buildings
– both offices and homes –
for comfort e.g the fans, air-conditioners, tv, etc
and also
for the purposes of functioning effectively i.e running their lap-tops, android phones, ironing their clothes, etc, etc

● and there is some entity called EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ( EKEDC ) that holds the job function of distributing electricity for parts of the LAGOS STATE area

● there is  another entity called IKEJA ELECTRIC or so that holds the job function of distributing electricity for the other parts of the LAGOS STATE area.

● the entity that i am rapping about right now is the one that goes by the name EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ( EKEDC ) and it is the one that distributes electricity for among other areas : MAKOKO, SABO, YABA, etc.

● Latifah nnkeh nm, these EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ( EKEDC ) folks didn’t always hold the job function of of distributing electricity for parts of the LAGOS STATE area.
for example,
back in the 1970s and 1980s,
the job function of of distributing electricity for ALL parts OF NIGERIA was held by a
Federal Government of Nigeria agency / parastatal called the
NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY ( NEPA ).

● at some point, some folks decided that the name of the
NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY ( NEPA ) should be changed to POWER HOLDING COMPANY of NIGERIA ( PHCN ) and thus the name was changed.

● PHCN ( POWER HOLDING COMPANY of NIGERIA ) formerly called
NEPA ( NATIONAL ELECTRIC POWER AUTHORITY ) manifested a record of performance that included power outages which were rather frequent and occurred all over NIGERIA.

● NIGERIA then chose the option of bringing in private sector players to manage the generation and distribution of electricity in all parts of Nigeria.

● as a direct consequence of this decision, ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES ( ELECTRICITY DISCOS ) were appointed? to manage the distribution of electricity in all parts of Nigeria and as a result of this  EKO ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ( EKEDC ) became the ELECTRICITY DISCO that distributes electricity for parts of LAGOS STATE e.g places like MAKOKO, IWAYA, ONIKE, SABO, YABA, etc.

now, the thing, Latifah aezeegboh ohbee nm, is that
… historically and up till date 2021 …
majority of the buildings in Nigeria do not have electricity meters.

some rumours say that as at date 2021 at least 90% of the buildings in Nigeria do not have electricity meters.

now, Latifah my dear, despite not having electricity meters
virtually all of these buildings
… whether residential or commercial or office buildings …
are all connected to the ELECTRICITY GRID.

so the thing is,
for a building that has no electricity meter and is connected to the electricity grid,
how do you bill it ?

common sense suggests that
you take an inventory of the electrical equipment and electronic equipment in the flats or offices in the building
and then
based upon this inventory profer a bill to the occupants of each office or flat.

that’s common sense.

now, Latifah baby, let me tell you what EKEDC does.

one thing EKEDC does is that it dis-countenances the readings from
all functional and functioning analogue post-paid electricity meters
and issues ESTMATED BILLS to all occupants of such buildings.

you read that right, babe.

a building has an electricity meter.
that electricity meter is working quite well.
EKEDC takes a look at the electricity meter and sees that
it is NOT a PRE-PAID DIGITAL? ELECTRICITY METER
and that
it is IN FACT a functioning POST-PAID? ANALOG? ELECTRICITY METER
and
EKEDC dis-countenances all readings from it
and issues ESTIMATED BILLS to it’s occupants
AS IF THE BUILDING HAD NO ELECTRICITY METER AT ALL

babe, what do you call this one ?

yeah, Queen Latifah, fine babe, tell me, what do you call this one ?

do you call it fraud ?
do you call it in-your-face open fraud ?

now, here’s another question for you, Latifah beautiful lady,
tell me,
does this look like a legal activity .. a legally acceptable activity .. to you ?

so, Latifah ohbee nm, what EKEDC is saying and doing is that
● if you have no electricity meter at all in your building
● if you have an electricity meter that is not functional / not working in your building
● if you have a functional POST-PAID? ANALOG? ELECTRICITY METER in your building
as far as EKEDC is concerned,
THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL BETWEEN ALL OF YOU
and
therefore YOU ALL GET ESTIMATED BILLS.

you know, babe, there used to be a term called fair practice.
and there was another one called fair corporate practice.

does this come across to you as fair practice ?
does this come across to you as fair corporate practice ?

there was another term called best practice procedures.
sometimes folks spoke it as corporate best practice procedures.

does this come across as best practice procedures to you ?
does this come across as corporate best practice procedures to you ?

this leads me to the other thing that EKEDC does
which is that
THE ONLY FOLKS THAT EKEDC DOES NOT GIVE ESTIMATED BILLS
ARE
THE FOLKS THAT HAVE THE
PRE-PAID DIGITAL ELECTRICITY METERS IN THEIR BUILDINGS.  

Latifah nnkeh nm, i guess i will come back to this pre-paid electricity meter thing later.

for now, let me just say that
folks have been complaining that
the ESTIMATED BILLS given to them by EKEDC
are

● EXORBITANT
● EXORBITANTLY HIGH
● EXCESSIVE
● EXCESSIVELY HIGH
● UN-FAIR
● UN-FAIRLY HIGH
● OUTRAGEOUS
● OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH
● HIGH
● TOO HIGH
● FAR TOO HIGH
● UNI-LATERAL
● ARBITRARY

● SPURIOUS?
● MERCENARY
● MALEVOLENT
● PARASITIC
● BLOOD-SUCKING?
● MONEY SUCKING
● PREDATORY
● EXTRACTIVE
● EXTRACTIONARY
● MEAN
● WICKED
● VICIOUS

[ END OF (1) ]

[ TO BE CONTINUED IN (2 ) ]