5th February, 2016
Eromosele Ebhomele
The Nigerian Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has incurred the wrath of the country’s Trade Union Congress, TUC, for reportedly maintaining that increase in electricity tariff is the only way to enhance stable power supply in the country.
The TUC also disagreed with the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, which announced the increase towards the end of January.
According to the TUC, the minister’s argument that an Act of the National Assembly actually empowers the commission to increase tariff and that the Act cannot be tampered with even by the federal parliament, is certainly “very lame, too simplistic and misleading.
“Any Act that preys on the masses that it is supposed to protect negates public policy. Any Act that compels the citizens to pay for services not delivered is not only flawed and undemocratic but is ultra vires the power of the Assembly to make laws for the good of the country, and should not enjoy any applicability.
“Any Act that further impoverishes the downtrodden and lowly is evil and should be discountenanced. We lend our voice again to advocate the need for the minister and NERC to stop trying to enforce the obnoxious Act,” TUC said in statement signed by the duo of Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, its President, and Barrister Musa Lawal, its Secretary-General.
“It is high time the minister and pr oponents of the tariff increase are reminded that one of the major reasons Nigerians demanded a change of leadership in May 2015 was so they could heave a sigh of relief. A major expectation was that we would, for once, stop paying for services that are not rendered.
“We never anticipated that the already fraudulent billing system would be made worse. We saw no NERC/FASHOLAGATE in the horizon!
“While we agree that the cost of procuring raw materials to generate electricity could be high, does it make any economic sense that the poor barber who still finds himself having to fuel his small generator even at the current high rate should be made to pay more for a service whose supply is very irregular and uncertain?
“With the benefit of hindsight it has become evident that the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, was a well-crafted ploy to deceive Nigerians into believing that it would address their pains.”
The TUC which enumerated reasons why the hike should be rejected by all Nigerians, described it as dictatorial.
“Due process stipulated in extant laws for such increment was not observed. We refer especially to Section 76 of the Power Sector Reform Act 2005.”
Other reasons as given by TUC include:
•There has been no significant improvement in service delivery. Worse still the vast majority of consumers are yet to be metered in accordance with the signed privatisation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of 1st November, 2013 which stipulated that all consumers should be metered within 18 months gestation period.
•There is a subsisting court order dated 28th May, 2015 by Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos in the case of Toluwani Yemi-Adebiyi vs NERC & Ors. that no increment be made until the determination of the substantive suit. Any increment at this time would be failing to take cognisance of the present biting economic recession in the country and would further impoverish the poor masses.
It maintained that it was the wrong time for government to hike the tariff and that instead of taking the unpopular action, power investors should work more to give consumers substantially improved service.
“Privatisation in any part of the world is meant to inject fresh funds into the concerned sector, and not to impose ridiculous tariffs on the groaning masses. The power situation in Nigeria is proving the reverse.
“The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria will steadfastly resist the satanic Act and its advocates until the right things are done,” the labour union said.