This past weekend was just crazy if anything. As a matter of fact, it has to be one of the craziest I’ve experienced in a while because the things that happened over it were a series of events that I’ve not experienced in a very long time and in my defense, I didn’t expect to experience them at all.
I already thought that there were some things I no longer had to deal with and I had moved on from, but I was wrong. Because one way or the other, in this country of mine, everything will always find a way to come back and haunt you. Despite the efforts you’ve made to avoid such things.
The most frustrating and annoying one of them happened on Saturday afternoon. I was home, trying to get some work done before I missed the deadline for that day. While that was going on, I heard a knock on our gate announcing that the Power Holders had arrived. In other news, Nepa had come to our compound with their ladders to disconnect.
Now, this was weird because ever since they went digital and encouraged everyone to pay bills online, they rarely came around anymore. Once you pay from your home, it is automatically reflected in their system and they won’t even come knocking and ask you to show them your bill. And seeing as we don’t owe them, we’re always up to date on our bills, we had not seen them for months.
This is not just me though; everyone in my compound. We all pay on time and never owe them. This is why you can understand our shock when they came on Saturday with their ladders. I had to pause my job to go answer them, and it turned out that one flat in the compound was owing quite a huge amount of money, well over two hundred thousand naira!
This was supposed to be a simple issue, every house has a meter that comes with a unique number. This number can be traced and the house with the bill would be fished out. However, these guys didn’t want to bother themselves. They said that as long as one flat was owing, then every other connection had to be taken down! It didn’t matter if everyone else was not owing at all.
This was the silly thing that till today doesn’t make any sense. How can I be in charge of making sure that my neighbor pays his bills on time? Why the hell should it be my business? Besides, it’s not like we share a meter, or even use the same cables, we have nothing in common except a compound, and that seemed to be our only crime. They were punishing us for the sins of others.
When we tried to counter this illogical ruse, they told us that we had to go to their office, and the only way to fix this was for the outstanding bill to be cleared. For this, they advised the landlord to come and clear it. It was clear that they wanted their money, but then, they were using those of us who paid regularly to get it. By disconnecting us, they wanted to force us to either pay off the bills or force the defaulting tenant to do so.
But we were not having it. We were all out there on the street, arguing it out. Among us, we tried to figure out who the defaulter could be so he could be singled out and only he would get disconnected. But that was where things got even more tricky. You see, the newest tenant there was the one with over 200k bills yet to be paid to NEPA. However, that wasn’t his bill, it belonged to the tenant who was there before him.
Unfortunately, he didn’t run his due diligence when renting the apartment and he inherited a debt of such an amount, close to half of his total rent. The landlord promised to pay it for him, but that never happened. After moving in, the very next month, NEPA came around and disconnected him. The only way he could get power back was by clearing the debt. He spoke to the landlord once more, all he got was promises and promises, and till today, the debt still stands.
So, he never cleared the debt, he never reconnected the light and since then, he and his family have been living in darkness. So, apparently, the account was suspended. I gathered that the guy was ready to leave it all and rely fully on his generator. But then, NEPA is not ready to forget their money. They’re coming for it and they want it one way or the other. So, who will pay the outstanding debt? The tenant who inherited it and has been living in darkness for over a year? The landlord who allowed said tenant to live in darkness after promising to clear the debt? Or are we the neighbors who had our lights disconnected just so they could get their money?
Now, you see how crazy this is? Even now that I’m writing all about it, I still don’t fully understand everything that happened because, at some point, I got fed up and left the place. Later on, we had to speak to a marketer that we knew who then spoke to the officials that came around. There was a lot of back and forth that happened that day. But eventually, they left. And when they did, our cables were still fixed to the electric poles.
If you’re confused by my story, then you have a pretty good idea of how I felt that sunny afternoon. I’ve never heard of officials cutting the light of others just to make one person pay their defaulted bill. It’s just insane. And thinking about it now is still infuriating.
It’s all good though, everything eventually ended on a good note. It also reminded me that indeed, the government never forgets. No matter what. They will always come for what is owed them, one way or the other. For NEPA, they don’t care that the people who actually consumed 200k worth of electricity no longer live in the apartment, or the fact that the new family there now has not had light for over a year, all they know is that one way or the other, they will get their money. The same can be said for taxes and other bills, eventually, they will get their money.
This is all a consequence of those who think they’re smart by refusing to pay their bills. When the officials come around to disconnect them, they bribe them off with some money, but their bills would still be increasing. Now, the poor family is suffering for it, they only ended up making things worse.
Omo… it was a crazy weekend indeed, and this was just one of the crazy things that happened. I’m just glad that we’re now in a new week. Cheers!
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