The people of Mbaise since after the civil war in the country set out to achieve a set of developmental goals, prime among which is the electrification of the 91 Autonomous Communities in the area.
To this end, www.Silvernews.com.ng reports that the people embarked on various self-help efforts towards achieving the goal of rural electricity, through all manners of community contributions, ranging from palm tree moratoriums to the tasking members of all age groups in the various communities.
Notably, the Mbaise nation has gone on to buy, install and maintain the various transmitting stations, transformers and more, with every household paying their bills; yet, all these efforts have been made with little or no power supply to report for their huge investments. As if that has not been enough disappointment to the affected communities, thy have had to be forced to pay for estimated light bills for lights thy never consumed.
As a result of these perennial malfeasance, last December, a private citizen of the Mbaise, Barrister Malachi Nwaekpe sent a petition to the House of Representatives Committee on Electricity, laying complaint to the NASS committee on the foregoing concerns.
The hearing on the floor of the House was an eye opener to the variegated assaults, and hair raising injustices that Mbaise people have had to endure over the years, without anyone to speak for them in advocacy.
Interestingly now, the Mbaise Electricity Monitoring Committee is the body saddled with the responsibility of enumerating the number of TCN/EEDC assets and other conducting equipments that are functioning, monitoring for compliance, giving status and upgrade reports, as well as ensuring that customer service is according to prescribed standards.
The body, working in cooperation with Representatives from all the 94 Autonomous Communities in Mbaise, spearheaded by Greater Mbaise Forum and led by Dr Bertram Onwuegbule PhD, has become the rallying point for the people of Mbaise across the world, in voicing their anger over the perennial poor power supply, while vowing to use the opportunity provided by the House to bring the issue to a client satisfactory end.
This Monitoring Committee is therefore devoted to working with TNC/EEDC to ensure top-notch compliance with all mandates issued by the House of Representative Committee during the hearing in process.
Thus far, both TCN and EEDC have agreed to specific mandates. These include completing the power station at Aboh Mbaise which has been stalled since 2019 at 75% completion and upgrading transformers across the full spectrum of Mbaise autonomous communities.
We will not fail to hint that EEDC has been bandying around the threat that the House of Representatives’ recommendations may not be compelling enough to force their compliance. We the citizens of Mbaise; however, wish to use this opportunity to warn both TCN and EEDC against testing our resolve for ensuring full compliance and more, that every home in Mbaise is both connected to electricity and metered.
