Na wetin person no know dey kill am. So goes a popular Nigerian slogan. This saying is more than apt with regards to the rights and privileges of the Nigerian citizen.

Ok, here’s a scenario. You live in an area where electricity is enjoyed about as much as the desert enjoys regular rainfall, which is never.

The supply is sporadic: 25 days of total electric incapacitation sprinkled with only 5 days of meagre relief. The end of the month approaches and the bills arrive, on time, abominably high.

You’re furious; you adamantly refuse to pay. Then you are threatened with disconnection. You have two options: succumb to their threats and pay the inflated bill or threaten to maim the officials who are hovering over your electric poles at that moment.

Hold it! Do you know that as a consumer of electricity you have the right to contest your electricity bill if you are unsatisfied with it, and without resorting to violence, too? Yeah, I bet you didn’t know that.

Regulation 9 of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s Meter Reading, Billing, Cash Collections and Credit Management for Electricity Supplies Regulation 2007 (you can download it from the Downloads List) provides rules for the billing of consumers by Distribution Companies. In addition to that, however, it also gives the consumer the right to contest any electricity bill issued to him by the Distribution Company. The consumer who contests his bill has the right not to pay the disputed bill while the matter is being resolved (he will however pay the last undisputed bill or the average of the bill in the last 12 months which was undisputed).

This regulation ensures that the Distribution Company is held accountable for bill inflation and that you, the consumer, have the right to fair billing.

So, the next time you are tempted to pull out the ladder from under the guy poised to cut your electric wires, hold on (for now. You can pull it out later. *just kidding*), you’ve got a way out. Contact your area distributor and make your complaints. If they don’t listen to you, click the Get Help link.

You hold the power.

© Shirley Nkechi Ogbonna

[email protected]

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