Uche Cecil Izuora
Nigerian businesses have been urged to embrace transparency, trust and accountability in their operations because it is in their own trust to do so, according to a nongovernment organization (NGO).
The Southeast branch of the Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) made the appeal in a statement after its third quarterly meeting at Owerri, Imo State capital, where it reviewed the recent power outages in the Aba Ring-fenced Area occasioned by natural gas supply disruptions to the 188-megawatt Geometric Power Plant that provides electricity to Aba Power which, in turn, supplies power to nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State that make up the Aba Ring-fence.
“From our study of the gas supply crisis”, stated ECAN in a statement, “neither the Abia State government nor the businesses and people of Aba would have treated the development with so much understanding and sympathy if not for the record of transparency, accountability, probity, and trust that Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th and newest electricity distribution (DIsCo), has long established”.
The statement signed by the ECAN chairman in the Southeast, Engr Joseph Ubani, and the secretary, Comrade Chris Okpara, listed the actions by the DisCo that made consumers trust it even when there have been disruptions in power supply.
The first of such things, said ECAN, “is the provision of smart meters to over 95% of consumers, even though it is only three years in operation.
“This means that not even one person was billed for the days there was no light, a remarkable departure from the practice where some DisCos that started operations since 2013 hoard prepaid meters, and so rely on estimated billings to exploit customers”.
The NGO praised Aba Power for providing the smart free of charge, even though it cost some N43bn to procure and install them through vendor financing.
The electricity consumers’ body also lauded Aba Power for taking prompt disciplinary measures against both its staff members and agents of its business partners who tried to compromise the system by asking consumers for payment before the installation of the smart meters.
Another reason for the public confidence in Aba Power, continued ECAN, is its swift measures against partners despite longstanding relationships, citing its disengagement of a wire and cable supplier during the Easter holidays last April for not making an alternative arrangement for the supply of materials from its stores for the Umuomainta community in Ngwa North LGA whose six poles were felled by storm and trucks.
“The disengagement”, noted the association, “signaled to all and sundry that Aba Power would not brook excuses for non-performance in emergencies even in rural communities.
“It’s critical to cultivate and maintain the reputation of promise keepers”.
The NGO, in addition, commended the DisCo for always responding promptly to communities, businesses and individuals with challenges regardless of their status, “and it does so with courtesy, unlike in the past when there was a different service provider”.
It stated that “all these factors that made the people in the Aba Ring-fenced Area sympathetic to Aba Power when they could not get electricity supplies due to severe gas shortages that lasted for days.
“It is delightful that the worst appears to be over as Heirs Energies, the gas supplier, is battling admirably for the rehabilitation and modernization of the aging Eastern Nigerian gas pipelines that were installed 50-60 years ago, worsened by the lingering legal dispute between the Nigerian government during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that operated Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 at Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area in Abia State which made the petroleum giant unable to invest in the infrastructure for the years the law suit lasted.
“We, therefore, recommend to Nigerian businesses to embrace transparency, probity, and accountability because these virtues give rise to trust.
“Trust, as studies have shown over the decades, is not just a personal virtue but an organizational, economic and development imperative.
“It drives rapid growth and national development more than most people seem to realize”.