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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) member, Nze Chidi Duru, has described the outrageous increase in electricity tariff as another example of state capture by the influential people behind Gencos and Discos.
Duru, the Deputy National Organising Secretary, claimed that they are actually the ones regulating the regulators, condemning the increase and expressing concerns over the guarantee put in place to ensure a possible 20 hours of power supply as announced.
In the statement he issued in Abuja on Friday, Duru suggested that stakeholders who are affected by the increase should have been consulted for their inputs on their expectations from the Discos in the face of the increase.
The statement titled; ‘Questions begging for answers over increase in power tariff’, read; “the questions begging for answers clearly indicate that this is another example of state capture by the influential people behind the Gencos and Discos who are actually the ones regulating the regulators.”
“Not many Nigerians will describe the power generating companies (Gencos) and Distribution Companies (Discos) as serving the purpose for which the ancient National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) was unbundled and privatised.
“For Nigerian consumers of electric power, it had been different expressions of dissatisfaction with the entities that purchased different operational aspects of the old NEPA in 2013.
“Of course, the sale of the old NEPA has not been without strong suspicion of the administration at that time parceling the unbundled NEPA to friends and cronies. This is reflecting in the operational efficiency of the successor Discos and Gencos becoming leeches on the national economy rather than adding value to the economy.
“The Federal Government had to intervene in the operational sustainability of both the Gencos and Discos at different times so much that at the last count, more than N3 trillion have been expended on the entities by the Federal Government. And we are talking of private entities here for that matter!
“The latest among the operational iniquities perpetrated by the Discos and Gencos and their regulators, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, is the unilateral increase of electricity tariff by more than 250 per cent from N66 to N225 kilowatts per hour.
“Though the NERC explains that the tariff increase only affected customers in Band A, those who enjoy a minimum of 20 hours a day of electricity. Yet, most customers in this category had never stopped complaining about deficient electricity supply, definitely not anything near the 20 hours a day of power supply as bandied by NERC,” the statement read.
Reacting further, Nze Duru wrote; “In the first instance, what manner of guarantee is in place to ensure a possible 20 hours of power supply as announced? How will this be enforced on Discos that had, more or less, become laws unto themselves, and what are the available sanctions in place for non compliance?
“At the minimum, I suggest that even if it is only to serve the purpose of equity, stakeholders who are affected by this increase should be consulted for their inputs on their expectations from the Discos in the face of the increase,” Duru noted in the statement.
