- Accuses regulators of collaboration with service providers to cheat consumers
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Deputy National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nze Chidi Duru, has angrily urged the federal government to review the concession agreement with electricity providers for imposing hardship on people in the country.
Duru who made the appeal while expressing anger against the unjustifiable banding of electricity tariff, claimed that the fact that Nigerians still buy their transformers, cables, poles and other electrical materials for the service providers are confirmation that they have not lived up to expectations.
Reacting to the recent hike through segmentation of consumers in bands, he told newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday that the inability of the service providers to improve their services in the past 15 years indicates their unworthiness and continued exploitation of Nigerians.
Asked if he is demanding that the government review the concession arrangement plan, Duru angrily replied: “Of course, it has come to that. If they look at the terms of the contract signed with the operators and if there is sufficient reason government should take over the agencies, DisCo and GenCo. It should be because none of them has delivered on the duties imposed on that contract.
“Otherwise, why is it that Nigerians are still buying their transformers, and 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 continued 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 a time when the government is working very hard to tackle the inflation and 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 said.
Expressing more anger on the development, the former House of Representatives member, said: “If the regulators, like the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) are doing their work, they would have brought to book the operators in the power sectors segment, particularly the value chain, and not them continuing to impose obligation on citizens for no faults of theirs other than the inappropriate concession of a very significant part of the economy, which is the power sector in Nigeria.
“It was 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. This incessant increase in tariffs will continue ad infinitum if nothing is done to ensure that these people are brought to account for what needs to be done.
“Over 15 years after the concession arrangement, we have not seen any improvement. If you compare it with what is happening in the telecommunications industry where the government deliberately made an effort to bring in people who understand the sector, the government made money but those who are professionals were brought in to operate the various licences.
“At the initial stage, the NCC, under the leadership of Ndukwe, we could see the roadmap that it may be expensive in the beginning like buying a SIM Card, but once they attain a critical mass, the cost will go down. And even before the timeline was set, we saw it began to go down immediately.
“You remember that at a time we were buying SIM for N35,000 or more, but suddenly it became free because the necessary investment was done in that sector as against what is currently happening in the power sectors where the government has continued to subsidise including borrowing money with the intervention of CBN, running into N3 trillion.
“In a privatised industry, cost reflection is not banded on areas of residents or where you do your business. How much power you use should not be based on where you are residing.
“If for example I have my factory in Lugbe, Abuja, and producing 500 billion products, then I will be under Band C. But if I am unfortunate to have my factory in Asokoro or Maitana, then I will be charged N255 because of the geographical location yet I am producing less.
“It has never happened anywhere in the world. It is only a certification around residential, commercial and manufacturing to ensure that those who use electricity more are made to pay for what they consume,” he noted.
Duru, reacting further argued: “Even without conceding that this could have happened, there must be a transition that will encourage and engender the confidence of people in this country that power is being provided to them 20 hours in a day that never happened.
“So people are paying for blackout and inefficiency only because they have been banded in a given area. Go to Asokoro and find out if they get a power supply for 20 hours a day. Yet they are charged with an ineffective cost of N255 and we have a regulator who instead of demanding efficiency on the part of the industry are colluding with them.
“This has unintended consequences for the government and for the party. People are groaning on account of difficulties and I call on the regulators to go to NCC and learn what they have been able to do. This is one policy that must not stand,” he warned.