Up NEPA, Down NEPA: The Reality Behind the Switch

Okay, so when it comes to NEPA, I have three experiences: one is at my dad's house, his house in Portharcourt and my aunt's rented house. It's meant to be more than that because my dad also has a house in Delta state but I can't even say I have experienced NEPA there because since I was born and all the times I have been to that house, they have only brought electricity three times, and the entire time wasn't more than 5 minutes. I forgot to include the village because over there they don't lack power, you can never hear people shout up NEPA because they are used to steady electricity.

Now our house in portharcourt here is very simple, the power is rationed between two parts of the town. If our side is getting electricity every night this week, then the other side gets power in the daytime. Just like that, the next week it is switched, and we get power during the daytime while they get it at night.
Although they don't keep it for long, it is steady, and if something isn't wrong, like bad weather, there is little assurance we will get electricity at the scheduled time.
When it comes to the bills, some people pay directly to NEPA whatever fixed price they set. While some people pay to have a power meter installed so they can buy the amount of electricity they want.

Although installing the meter is expensive, it pays off in the long run. Because I know houses where they have the least electrical appliances and still pay almost the same atrocious bill as houses that have five air conditioners.
My dad made sure meters were installed in all the apartments.

The power condition was almost like that in Port Harcourt, but even better. They didn't have any schedule, but they could leave the electricity on for 22 hours, and there was power every night. And the electricity bill was so cheap.
But in time, the bill increased every month, and the quality of the power did the same thing.
Soon, they only brought electricity when they wanted the money, and once the bills were paid, they would disappear.
And even when they brought the power, the voltage was so close to useless.
At some point, people stopped paying, and rumors started of them selling the power.
And before all this, the transformer was stolen almost every month. And when they started paying people to secure the transformer, they found out that it was stealing from the transformer. They would steal from it, collect money to replace what was stolen and replace what they stole.
But now no one bothers to steal from the transformer because people don't need a transformer when there is no electricity. I don't know the present state of power in Ahoada, but up to last year, I think I kept a record of at least 2 years of darkness.

My aunt's house has 4 apartments that share one huge bill, but divided by 4 it isn't that much. So the problem this time isn't from the government but one of the building occupant who doesn't like paying until the electricity is cut off. Then they have to contribute to cover up for her sometimes, and she never pays back, including the money spent on putting the power back on.

So, as you can see, it is not always about the government and large bills. The citizens also play a big role in this NEPA frustration.

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