Why Some People Won't Pay Their Bills...

_{Wilson Vitorino}

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Well, let me start by saying this; Power Holders in my dear country Nigeria, have not been trying at all. Over the decades since its inception, they have been on a downward spiral. And as it stands we don’t even know how they can come to par with their international counterparts.

It is not news for many communities to be cut off completely from electricity for long periods of time, sometimes it can stretch to months and even years. Everyone will have to find other sources of electricity for their daily living and businesses. There are those that really enjoy this power, probably because in their area they have a more efficient substation that is committed to providing steady light. And then, there are those that the light is not regular, but it comes once in a while.

And there is one annoying thing, the electricity bills. Especially for those that use postpaid, you are charged a certain sum each month based on the amount of electricity you consume. Although there are fixed tariffs that are on the bills, the bulk of the charges come from the electricity that is consumed. So, as you can see, it is what you made use of that you get to pay for.

In post-paid you use it and then pay. But in pre-paid you pay before you use it.

And in post-paid, it does not matter how many times power was restored during the month, you will still get the bill. That is why many people always feel like they are only paying for darkness when they pay the bills but do not get the light.

The power holders have their problems, we have agreed on that. But then, there are those who also have problems of their own. And these are people who choose not to pay their bills even when they are making use of electricity.

_{Pok Rie}

I know a family that ever since they moved into a house, they have never paid their bill once. They always had one excuse or the other to give to the officials when they came to disconnect, and then to seal the deal they would bribe the officials to turn a blind eye. They have been in that house for more than two years now, and they are yet to pay a single bill.

I know that sometimes power holders can frustrate you and make you just wash your hands off anything that concerns them, but this family lives in a developed area that usually has steady light. It might not be 24/7 but it was regular, coming in at least once a day. But this family would enjoy the electricity, and when the time to pay the bill came, they would ignore it and instead look forward to bribing the officials.

Although the officials themselves are behaving horribly by accepting bribes, a practice that should be abolished at once, I blame the customers that keep on giving to them. Because in the long run, they are the ones that are losing.

When you think about it, their debt will keep on increasing every month, and even while they keep on bribing them, their bills will accumulate until it will become this huge amount that will be so daunting and intimidating to settle.

This does not just go for power, it also includes other utility bills like waste disposal and the like. These are things that we have to do to keep the system running. When you refuse to pay but keep on using their services how do you expect them to keep the system running? I know of some people that got fed up with them and decided to get disconnected from the pole, they chose to rely on solar instead and gasoline generators instead. But many people will not be able to afford that due to the high cost, so we have to make do with the little we have. And no matter what, we must try to always pay our bills. It will end up making things easier for us.

_{Emmanuel Ikwuegbu}

I have to say that there are times when the power holders go extreme with their bills, like many of those in Lekki and other highbrow areas in Lagos have complained about the exorbitant bills that they are charged, but I have no idea how it is calculated there and what kind of appliances are majorly used. But seeing as a lot of people complained they could not be all that big.

So, what am I saying? The bills are important to see to the smooth running of the establishment. When we keep on getting services and we fail to pay, they would be running on loss. And that will always affect us all in the long run.

_{Johannes Plenio}

Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section, I would really love to know how you feel. Till we meet in the next post.

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_{Borderimage credit: @deimage.}