As a citizen of Nigeria, I strongly believe that two things are necessary to pull this nation out of the mire of retrogression: (i) The election of a crop of leaders who will see governance as service to the people, and (ii) a system that will enable and enforce transparency. The former can be achieved with elections, and the latter with the CCA.
One sector that suffers from the absence of such a system is Power (Electricity); from generation through supply to billing.
Several communities live in total darkness nearly all year round, yet they are constantly sent outrageous electricity bills. There are suburbs in Lagos state where they may not enjoy more than 72 hours of public power supply in a month (as opposed to electricity generated with privately-owned generating sets), and yet their monthly electricity bills would range from ten to fifteen thousand naira. The cause? Unreasonable estimated billing.
Several of us have applied for prepaid card meters, which to some extent will ensure that one gets charged only on the basis of true consumption. It should not be rocket science, really. If you exhaust your money’s worth of electricity, you can’t complain, and the power company can’t complain either. Service is rendered, and service is paid for.
Power consumers are made to wait in line for months (sometimes years), and only seldom do a few people get these meters. Like many other things in Nigeria, the easy solutions always take forever. Not because of a dearth of ideas, not because of the endless chains of bureaucracy; but because the solution will plug the drain that feeds the underground monster known as ‘Cabals’.
The Nigerian Cabal: A small group of people and organisations who give bribes for contracts, and then more kickbacks when projects are abandoned or when they under-supply or even hoard the goods to make them available to the highest bidder through new companies.
And in all this, those who suffer the most are the ordinary Nigerian people. People like you and me who have to suffer in darkness, spend a fortune on generators and inverters to generate and store our own electricity; and still pay for electricity services we don’t get. Imagine how easy businesses would run if the power problem in Nigeria was solved, finally.
As can be imagined, these leakages exist not only in the power sector, but in every facet of our lives, from employment to education, healthcare, petroleum resources, housing, road maintenance; name it, Corruption is as pervasive as an epidemic.
I sincerely hope the Corporate Corruption Act gets passed and that someday soon we will be benefactors of this system that will ensure good governance. I am proud to be part of a process that will return Nigeria to her destiny; that, is why I support the Bribecode.
Quite true all of this. You mentioned two key things: the right leaders and the right system… The perfect combination. How long will it take us to get there? I am ready to join and see how we work towards that journey. Yes, I don’t mind the walk… I can only pray that we keep the faith.