Electricity Tariff Hike: NLC Calls For Outright Cancellation

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Federal Government to completely abort the planned electricity tariff increase in the country.

MERIDIAN SPY reported Tuesday, the President, Muhmmadu Buhari and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo agreed with the leadership of the National Assembly to suspend the electricity tariff hike which was initially billed to take effect today, Wednesday, July 1 to the first quarter of 2021.

“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,” Senate President, Ahmad Lawan told newsmen.

“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.”

Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs), also said they agreed to align with the recommendation of the National Assembly leadership to suspend the implementations of the proposed new tariff regime till the first quarter of 2021,” Vanguard reports.

The DISCOs under the umbrella of Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, (ANED) which made this known via a statement issued by its Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Mr Sunday Oduntan, in Abuja however, maintained that the meeting to suspend the tariff hike was in instance of the National Assembly.

But the NLC said the suspension of the hike in electricity tariff was not enough, and demanded a total cancellation of any future hike.

It said not only was the tariff increase not in tandem with nation’s socio-economic realities, but that Nigerians could not be paying for darkness and inefficiency of power distribution companies.

“As much as we are pleased with the current truce on the campaign by DISCOs to subject Nigerians to killer-electricity charges, we know that the battle is far from over,” the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said, in a statement.

“In addition to the untold hardship that the intended tariff increase by DISCOs would unleash on private citizens, the NLC is greatly distressed over the hemorrhage businesses in Nigeria would suffer in terms of productivity, jobs and livelihood if the planned tariff hike is allowed to stand.

“Electricity is the backbone of businesses – big manufacturing concerns and small/medium scale enterprises. Already, the inability of DISCOs and GENCOs to provide constant power is taking a huge toll on national productivity, growth, employment creation and job retention.

“The Organized Private Sector in Nigeria (OPSN), in a recent statement posited that electricity outages in Nigeria average ten hours per day, with the cost of self-generated electricity averaging N119 billion in 2019.

“The Nigeria Labour Congress rejects any further hike in electricity tariff, pump price of petrol and other essential public utility charges. The NLC is fully ready to mobilize our people to resist attempts by anyone to impose modern-day slavery on Nigerians – be they DISCOs or regulators of public utilities.

“We insist that further hike in tariff and user access charges at this time of great socio-economic dislocation would be ultra-insensitive, callous and a pre-meditated attempt to send many Nigerians, workers, pensioners and businesses to untimely graves.

“In the interest of fairness, equity and justice, we demand that the DISCOs refund Nigerians all the estimated billings that had been unjustly collected from our people all these years. We also demand that DISCOs pay consumers the cost that their inefficiency has imposed on citizens, residents and businesses.

“DISCOs must also repay bailout funds they had unjustly collected from public coffers. We wish to remind the DISCOs that the provision of pre-paid meters, transformers and investment in the sector are statutorily the job of the DISCOs not consumers or government.

“DISCOs were fully aware of these conditions before subscribing to the power sector privatization programme. Enough of the lies, deceit and exploitation of the Nigerian people. On the strength of the open admission by DISCOs in Nigeria to their own grand incompetence and crass failure, we call on the Federal Government to immediately set in motion processes for the review of the power sector privatization.

“Enough is enough. The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress reiterates its resolve to act on the side and in the interest of the Nigerian people, workers and pensioners always.”