Here's the edited one. I got a little help from Kiity. Sent it to her for a read-through. She did and gave some ideas that led to this.
Speech
The 8th of October
last year marked the beginning of a story. A story whose timing I’ve tried to
make into a short clip. A short clip of the field and classroom training. It
all started at the waiting room at the Head Office where I sat with my
colleagues, graduates who had been recruited alongside myself. The ambience was
jovial. We shared experiences of the
journey from the test, the interview and the wait till we were sent invitation
letters. I could say no one had an inkling of what awaited us within the next 12
months. We didn’t have a chance of speculating as all discussions ended
when Mrs Uche of the HR department walked in and made a roll call, verifying
all who were present.
The first assignment I had was
to enumerate customers, index premises, tag transformers and poles and collect
individual customer information. A little stressful but fun when you get to see
the reactions of people and relate with them accordingly, educative as well, as
I now have the names of the streets in the GRA at the palm of my hands. I got
to know the importance of having processes in place when you have a project,
having a team that would accomplish it with you and defining the objective for
each person.
As the days rolled into weeks
and months, I was more informed about some challenges we as a company were
facing. The high Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection loss (which
required a lot of work to reduce), the unsatisfied customers (aka protesters)
who had a way of bringing their complaints through a different channel apart
from the telephone, email and the CCU. A blaring sound of human voices on a
beautiful day at the Head Office will tell you that the channel has been
opened. And you had to respond. Sometimes, they thought it wise to show us our
power supply wasn’t enough by cooking delicacies with firewood at our gates
while they waited in the burning sun.
The classroom session taught
me more about the power business, the technical and non-technical aspects.
Listening to the lectures at a serene environment like we had at Elizade
University made a difference. This I’m grateful for.
The sessions with the Managing
Director were exceptional. They spanned long hours but was worth the time. I
learnt the importance of being alert and proactive. Once, I was 2 minutes late to
class and she gave me a (-5). She had started grading. From then on, every little thing I didn’t
regard seemed to be a (-5) or a (-2). She just wanted the best from us and I
enjoyed every minute I spent in the sessions we had.
The boot camp training with
Soldiers from the Nigerian Army was an experience of a life time. The
stretches, exercises, the body pains all took their toll on my body as I
couldn’t walk well for a week. Once, I wasn’t feeling too well, the “aje-butter
gene in me” tried capitalising on it, but they wouldn’t bulge. I remember
telling the CSO “I can’t do it” for me to be excused, his reply was ‘It’s your
mind, you can do it’. I went on to do it but not without earning a name amongst
the Soldiers ‘I can’t do it!’ they tagged that on me at every given
opportunity. The exercise however, thought me about the power of the mind.
Someone once said that the
bigger the challenges, the greater the opportunities. I see before me as I
conclude, an opportunity on which I and my colleagues can choose to learn and
work hard to make a success of our world in ways others might not be able to.
An opportunity to learn and understand the power business, adding value to the
various arms it’s comprised of. An opportunity to work within an environment presumably
with the most hostile customers, and be successful. An opportunity to work
within a company with a high ATC&C loss amongst various challenges. What
more could I ask for? It's just perfect. Isn't it?
Thank you.
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