Buhari, Osinbajo, NASS Leadership Agree To Halt Planned Electricity Tariff Increase

President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo have agreed with the leadership of the National Assembly to defer the planned increase of electricity tariff across the nation earlier billed to take off from Wednesday, July 1.

This is coming after National Assembly leaders, following its meeting with the Chief Executive of government electricity regulatory body and electricity Distribution Companies across the country on Monday, resolved to halt the planned increase in electricity tariffs.

According to Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in a statement on Monday, they agreed to delay the electricity tariff increase to the first quarter of 2021.

Lawan said the lawmakers had not much issue with introducing cost reflective tariff, which understandably would attract the much needed investment in the power sector, but that the timing of the increase was not “right and appropriate” given the stress Nigerians had gone through due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, briefing newsmen on Tuesday after meeting with the President at the State House in Abuja, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said Buhari and Osinbajo were on the same page with them that the timing was not expedient, hence the increment should be deferred till further notice.

When asked about the hike of electricity tariff and the DISCOS complaints of operating under heavy financial burden, Gbajabiamila said, “Let me just say that we saw the President earlier this morning and we have seen the Vice President today. The whole idea is that when there is a major policy decision, it is always good that the legislature and the executive are on the same page so that we don’t sing different tunes.

“I will like to say that I think we have all agreed on an increase in cost-reflective tariff but the issue is that the timing is also important. Sometimes, timing is more important than even the policy decision that you make.

“There is a saying that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. So the intentions are good but what about the timing? We have all agreed to suspend this for a while, tarry a while and get the buy-in of the people, explain to the people why this has to be done, that it is for the betterment for the electricity to get stable.

“They are businessmen (DISCOS) and cannot be undercutting themselves. I think so far, so good, the President listened attentively, the Vice President listened attentively and I think everybody is on the same page and hopefully, we will get some reprieve between now and whenever but it’s not going to happen today.”

On his part, Lawan said the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the country negatively, and that the situation requires that everything possible is done to make life easier for citizens.

“We have come to visit our Vice President… in connection with the impending electricity tariff in the country,” he said.

“The joint leadership of the National Assembly sat yesterday [Monday] with DISCOS and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). We believe that this is not the right time to increase the tariff in the electricity sector.

“Nigerians have a lot of challenges today because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the situation requires that we do everything possible to make life easy for our citizens.

“Of course, government is doing a lot in this respect but we believe that DISCOS should meet with consumers, find better cost-effective tariff. But before then, there must be some steps to ensure that the consumers are properly metered otherwise, you will still go back to guessing what consumers are consuming. That is to say, that let the billing be scientifically based, it has to be based on what you actually consumed.

“So, we had this discussion with Mr Vice President and we are sure that that announcement in the increase of electricity tariff in Nigeria is untimely.

“We believe that we need to do more work to ensure that before any increase, there must be some measures, steps, line of actions that must be exhausted including the metering. This is a welcome idea to the Vice President as well.”