8th February, 2016
GBENRO ADESINA/IBADAN
Oyo State members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NCL), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Monday took the streets in Ibadan, protesting against the hike in electricity tariff which took effect from 1 February, 2016.
The peaceful demonstration to the offices of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, its headquarters on Ring Road, other stations in Monatan, Gate, and Dugbe, forced the IBEDC workers to abandon their work and come out of their offices.
The workers held various banners with inscriptions demanding for the reversal of the tariff hike,saying that Nigerians would not succumb to the violation of their fundamental human rights by unnecessarily extorting and exploiting the vulnerable.
There was huge presence of police vehicles but the policemen only watched from a distance without interference.
Before hitting the streets, the workers had earlier gathered at the NLLC secretariat in Agodi area of Ibadan, where the NLC Vice President, Bayo Titilola-Sodo, and TUC chairman in the state, Bolanle Olabode, addressed them and the media on the reason for the protest.
According to Titilola-Sodo, the hike by the Federal Government was illegal, and unreasonable, owing to a subsisting court order and the plight of Nigerian workers.
He said FG’s action was an expression of insensitivity over workers’ welfare, while the national treasurer of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Ademola Aremu, described the tariff hike as a way of forcing a gain when no service was delivered.
Titilola-Sodo said, “The Nigerian workers have gathered to resist the illegal, unreasonable and unjustifiable hike in electricity tariff in their country by the government. There is a law governing the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Nigeria. That law is the Power Sector Reform Act of 2005. Section 76 of that Act provides for a due process to be followed when there is going to be any change in electricity tariff, that process was not followed before the recent tariff increase of 45 per cent and above.
“Secondly, we all know that there has not been appreciable improvement in the quantity and quality of electricity supply to Nigerians, so why the hike in tariff? There is also a subsisting court order, stating that the status quo be maintained until the determination of the matter, which is supposed to come up in court this month. But before the date, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, in connivance with the generation, distribution and transmission companies went ahead to hike electricity tariff.”
While calling for a reversal of the hike, Aremu said, “It is only in Nigeria that you think about how to make profit even when service is not delivered. There was the privatization of the sector but all those who bought the companies are not delivering. It is suicidal for anyone to think of a hike in price of service that has not been delivered. It is only in an insane company that such thing can happen.
“This protest is meant to reverse the hike as we did in 2012 when fuel price was arbitrarily increased. We forced the government to reduce it from N147 to N97. If that action was not taken at the time, poor Nigerians would have been buying petrol at high fee per litre. When you rule people, you must show sensibility to their welfare. Someone should have stood up to evaluate the services the companies are giving before thinking of a hike in electricity tariff.”
At Monatan during the protest, some residents lauded the leadership of the labour union, stressing that until Nigerians decide to take their destiny in their hands, the upper class people would not stop taking advantage of them.
A mechanic who identified himself as Segun said, “In my area, all the landlords and landladies and the tenants contributed money to buy poles and wire. We bought our transformer. When we call the IBEDC staff to come and fix it for us, they charged us money. To connect meter is a problem. Each meter eventually cost about N50,000. First, at Monatan, they will give you form and after filling it, they say that you should go and pay between N28,000 and N35,000 depending on the type of meter you apply for. That is the official fee. Then the unofficial fee will follow. They will collect N10,000 by cash which they call contractor fee. They will say that N10,000 is the fee that their accredited contractor will take to sign your fee. After that, they will ask you to wait and maybe after about a year, they will call you to come and collect your meter. You will still have to pay their official that follows you to install it.”
He added, “Despite the fact that you have paid for the meter with receipt, they will continue to bring estimated bill between N4000 and N5000 and that will last till you collect the meter. These people are rogues and thieves”.
But one of the corporate affairs officers of the IBEDC, who preferred anonymity, said the new tariff would in the long run benefit their customers adding, “The new tariff was not our sole idea but I think it has come to stay. It is not to bring hardship but to bring improvement on power situation in the country. In the long run, it will benefit the customers.”