Electricity Tariff Hike: APC NWC Member Urges FG to Revoke, Review Concession Agreement with Providers

Adedayo  Akinwale in Abuja

The Deputy National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Nze Duru, has called on the federal government to review the concession agreement with the electricity providers in the country over what he described as their monumental failure.

Duru, while reacting to the recent electricity tariff hike during a media briefing in Abuja, said the inability of the service providers to improve their services in the past 15 years indicated their unworthiness and continued exploitation of Nigerians.

He said the fact Nigerians still buy their transformers, cables, poles and other electrical materials for the service providers was a confirmation that they have not lived up to expectations.

Duru stated: “If they look at the terms of the contract the government signed with the operators and if there is sufficient reason the government should take over the agencies, DisCos and GenCos.

“It should, because none of them have delivered on the duties imposed on that contract. Otherwise, why is it that Nigerians are still buying their transformers, cables, providing electricity for themselves, still generating power through other sources and still consuming diesel at inappropriate levels.

“Those selling generators are selling more than before and the volume of kilowatts of power available in the country continues to hover around 2000 to 6000 and never go beyond that. Was that not a reflection that there is not enough investment in that industry and a reflection that those operators don’t understand the business?

“It is an indication that what they are there to do is to impose hardship on the average Nigerian and there are sufficient grounds to do that.

“It is a pity that this is happening at the time the government is working very hard to tackle inflation, provide basic amenities to Nigerians, yet an agency of government can impose such inordinate charges and bills without base and background on the people of these country.

“They did it without the requisite checks and balances of what is needed to be done in the first place. It doesn’t work on the sense of logic that this should even happen in the first place,” Duru added.

The APC chieftain pointed out that if the regulators, like the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) were doing their work, they would have brought to book the operators in the power sector.

According to him, the assets were sold to people with little or no experience, “our national patrimony was handed over to them and rather than invest in the sector, they rather see the sector as an avenue not only to make money but also to undermine the country and citizens of Nigeria.”