16 May 2012
Chairman of NERC, Mr. Sam Amadi
By Linda Eroke
Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has rejected the Federal Government’s planned hike in electricity tariff, on the ground that it would bring untold hardship on Nigerians.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) last week said a new electricity tariff regime, which would see certain category of consumers paying more, would take effect in June.
However, the Chairman of NERC, Mr. Sam Amadi, said the new rates would not so much affect the masses, adding that government has budgeted N60 billion to subsidise power consumption for the poor this year.
Already, governors of the 36 states of the federation have unanimously endorsed the plan by the government to increase electricity tariff across the country.
Reacting to government’s decision to further increase electricity tariff, President General of TUC, Peter Esele, described the decision as unjustifiable and absurd from any right thinking government.
Esele said the new tariff, which would see the price of consumption of power increased by over 88 per cent, was grossly unfair against the backdrop of the incessant power failure.
He lamented that Nigerians were being made to pay for the profligacy of leaders, adding that government must ensure the availability of the product before considering any hike in electricity tariff.
He expressed concern that power situation in the country has continued to deteriorate despite the billions of dollars expended to improve the sector, adding that reality on ground point to the fact that corruption and mismanagement of resources had been the bane of the power sector.
According to him, “there is no justification for another increase in tariff because Nigerians are not getting value for the huge amount being paid for electricity as power situation has worsened in recent times.”
Esele, who noted that Nigerians were yet to recover from the increase in price of petrol, stressed that any further increment would further impoverish Nigerians and aggravate the security challenges in the country.
“It is unimaginable that government is considering further increase in electricity tariff when Nigerians are not getting value for their money and power situation has not improved despite the billions of Naira invested in the sector.
“We are talking about generating 4000 megawatts of electricity when serious countries with less than half of our population are in the region of 50000 megawatts. Even this 4000 megawatts has become a mirage and when achieved has become unstable.
“The situation presently has become worse than it used to be before all the promises. We are reliably informed that present power generation stands somewhere below 3,000 megawatts. This is indeed not amusing. We always put the cart before the horse and that is why we are where we are today. Government must rethink its policy if the country must move forward,” Esele stated.
To tackle the numerous challenges facing the power sector, the TUC boss advised government to revive most of the electricity projects under the Independent Power Projects (IPP) and invest in facilities to bring in constant supply of gas to the plants to ensure that their operations are not hampered by paucity of fuels to run the turbines.
“Once the electricity problem is resolved, Nigeria will naturally start working itself back to economic prosperity as small and medium scale production will begin to come back on stream, while costs is reduced in the bigger manufacturing concerns where the contribution of self – supply of electricity inflicts about 60 per cent cost on their total cost outline in the production process.
“This will make them more competitive thus reducing imports, reducing inflation, putting less pressure on the forex market and reducing the consumption of diesel.
“The positive multipliers that would be unleashed on the economy will resonate bringing back the industries that have fled the country and attracting new investments. However, it is imperative that we explore every means possible to solve our electricity problem if we are serious about all the high sounding rhetoric on vision 2020 and its promises for work,” Esele added.
SOURCE: ThisDay, 16 May 2012. http://www.thisdaylive.com
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