By Henry Isiekwe
SIR: Just recently, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved a steep increase in electricity charges in Nigeria. The reason given by NERC, the government and by Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOS) for the hike in electricity charges (in the middle of a global pandemic that has devastated the nation’s economy) is that the previous charges collected are not reflective of and do not account for the actual cost of electricity generated, supplied to and consumed by Nigerians, hence the introduction of a so-called “service/cost reflective tariff”
We know however that the hike, which the government had promised in June to postpone to the first quarter of 2021 to give Nigerians time to recover from the harsh socio-economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, was suddenly implemented because of the desperation of the Buhari administration to collect a loan of $3billion from the World Bank. We know that the World Bank insists that to get the loan, the Buhari Administration must remove fuel subsidy and introduce a cost reflective electricity tariff regime. And the Buhari administration, it appears, was too happy or just too desperate to give in to these callous demands made by the World Bank, shedding in one fell swoop, the two most crucial subsidies enjoyed by its long-suffering and desperately poor citizens in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended countless Nigerian lives, livelihoods and businesses.
The leadership of the National Assembly had promised Nigerians in June that there would be no increment in electricity charges until the first quarter of 2021 and had allegedly secured an agreement with DISCOS and with NERC to postpone the planned increment in electricity charges to the first quarter of the 2021. The Senate President also promised to take up the issue with the president and did in fact visit the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in June to discuss the matter with the president and the vice president. It is not clear however what the outcome of the said meeting was. Did the leadership of the National Assembly reached an agreement with the president and/or the vice president to postpone the planned increment in electricity charges to the first quarter of 2021 or to such a time that the DISCOS are able to adequately meter electricity consumers in the country?
Did they fail to persuade the president to postpone the increment in electricity charges to the first quarter of next year or to such a time that every electricity consumer in Nigeria is metered? We do not know what role the leadership of National Assembly played in the recent decision of the government to increase electricity charges.
Perhaps the leadership of the National Assembly changed their minds. And if they had changed their minds, what could be the basis for such a sudden change of mind when the facts that informed their rejection of the planned increment in electricity charges in June (i.e. impropriety of an increment in the middle of a global pandemic and inadequate metering) remain constant till date?
There is nothing to indicate that the leadership of the National Assembly has disavowed their rejection of an increment in electricity charges in June. Perhaps the leadership of the National Assembly did not change their minds but were simply bamboozled by the president or simply succumbed to the president’s wishes. Whatever the case may be, the leadership of the National Assembly, should not be spared the condemnation and outrage that has greeted the recent increment in electricity charges.
The National Assembly is a co-equal branch of government and was created for times like this when there is a need to keep the excessive impulses of the executive branch in check. Sadly, the National Assembly has consistently proved itself to be weak, impotent, irresponsive and unaccountable to the Nigerian people and incapable of holding the president and other members of the executive branch to account. More egregiously, the National Assembly has consistently demonstrated (as it has done in this case) that it is ever willing and ready to sacrifice the interests of the Nigerian people on the altar of political expediency, for the advancement of moneyed interests, in pursuit of the personal gain and aggrandizement of its membership and to please whoever occupies the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
- Henry Isiekwe Esq,
Lagos.
