The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, on Wednesday in Ibadan, Oyo State, hosted the FGN/NLC-TUC ad-hoc committee on electricity tariff stakeholders’ engagement session on recent increment in charges.
The committee was inaugurated by the Federal Government to engage consumers and the organised labour on complaints against the introduction of Service Reflective Tariff on September 1, which led to the increment in electricity tariff.
Festus Kenyamo (SAN), Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, said the committee would get the opinions, agitations and suggestions from the Distribution Companies, consumers, the organised labour and other key players in the sector to determine way forward.
According to him, the committee would come up with a report that would proffer long-lasting solution to the problems confronting the sector.
Keyamo said, “You can see that this committee is multi-sectoral. The labour is represented, so we have bridged the trust gap because labour represents the Nigerian workers and the people. It is not just a government committee but the government and labour committee. The discos are also represented here. What labour is doing is that they are speaking up on behalf of Nigerians.
“At the end of the day, whatever consensus we reach going forward on electricity tariff will be an agreement between government and labour. The people must have representatives in such discussion and that is what we have done. To answer whether there would be increase or decrease or adjustment is premature.
“What we are doing is honest and open fact-finding. For instance, we want to question the rationale for the service reflective tariff. Labour wants to know the components that form up that figure and whether we can adjust the components?
“We want to ensure that the consumers are not strangulated by the unnecessary exploitative tendencies of the discos while we ensure also that the discos are kept afloat. If they are kept afloat, they will also employ workers and it would deliver effective service to the people and we can attract investors. We are looking for that equilibrium that will make everybody happy.”
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Ahmed Rufai Zakar, who represented President Buhari at the FGN/NLC-TUC ad-hoc committee on electricity tariff stakeholders engagement held in Ibadan, has said the president understands the citizens’ plights on issues surrounding electricity and had determined to deal with bad elements.
He said, “We have made it very clear through the regulators direct order as well as intervention from the Ministry of Power that the meters are to be provided to Nigerians at no cost. Even for meters that were paid for, there is the directive from the regulator to the discos that they would need to find a way to reimburse those citizens over time.
“In cases where we find any disco or disco representative selling the meters or exploiting Nigerians to be able to get meters by paying, we would take the full measures of the law. The President has mandated that these meters must be free. We have also said that they must come from local manufacturers. This would create jobs and revive our industry. We are very excited about the prospect and we would not be taking any gimmick from the discos, meter assemblers or manufacturers. We would be vigilant and we would monitor.”
The Chief Operating Officer of IBEDC, John Ayodele, assured the forum that IBEDC was committed to ensuring that some of the challenges identified on the SRT were resolved, stressing that it would take some time for the electricity sector in Nigeria to attain desired height.
Calling for the cooperation of consumers, he said, “We need to trust the Federal Government. As promised, the FG will implement the report of the committee when it is ready.
“The Federal Government has said that they would definitely implement. Nigeria will move from where it is but we need to exercise some patience. We have a very serious problem and government is trying to address it.”
Speaking on behalf of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, noted that the timing of the increment was wrong as many Nigerians were still grappling with the negative impacts of COVID-19.
He said, “Power and water supply are human right issues. Power should be classified under human right issue and when the state decides to hand it over, the private sector must make their profits, clearly.”
