By Chekwube Nzomiwu
For most Nigerians, the recent 240 percent increase in electricity tariff is not only insensitive, but a bitter pill to swallow. The upward review of electricity tariff, which took effect from Wednesday, April 3, 2024, was announced a few days ago by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Abuja. Making the announcement, the NERC Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni said only customers in band “A” would be affected by the increase from N68/KWh to N225/KWh. Band “A” are those who enjoy electricity supply for 20 hours in a day.
Since the announcement, Nigerians have been crying for the reversal of the tariff hike, coming at a time that they are still battling with the economic hardship inflicted on them by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s twin economic policies of removal of fuel subsidy and exchange rate unification. The tariff increase may not be as hasty as the removal of fuel subsidy by the President on the day of his inauguration, but the public outcry greeting it shows that it is clearly not in tune with the current mood of the nation.
Quite frankly, one cannot entirely blame Mr. President for all the challenges confronting the power sector today because it is one area where his predecessors since 1999, failed. The presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from (1999-2007) bequeathed darkness to the country after spending $16 billion on the power sector. During the administration of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the House of Representatives tried to probe what happened under Obasanjo, but corruption fought back.
From Goodluck Jonathan to President Muhammadu Buhari, the conundrum persisted. Besides corruption, incompetence bogged down the sector. For instance, under Obasanjo, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Igwe, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was at some point redeployed to the Federal Ministry of Power as Minister. Ige reportedly became frustrated and resigned before his eventual assassination at his Bodija Estate home in Ibadan, Oyo State. Till date, his killers have not been found.
Save for the brief period that Professor Barth Nnaji, the Chairman of Geometric Power Limited, served as the Minister of Power under the Jonathan administration, the Ministry has been largely headed by people who had no track record in the power sector. Under the first tenure of Buhari, former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola SAN, presided over the Ministry from May 2015 to May 2019.
Saleh Mamman took over from Fashola at the beginning of Buhari’s second tenure in May 2019. Although Mamman obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Electrical-Electronics Engineering, he had no visible experience in the sector before his appointment. The Taraba State born politician worked at different times as a teacher, civil servant and full time businessman. He was later sacked in a minor cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Abubakar Aliyu, a Civil and Water Resources Engineer.
When President Tinubu came, it was initially rumoured that he would appoint former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai to head the Power Ministry. Although El-Rufai equally had no track record in the sector, many people felt that at least, he possessed the capacity to deliver, going by his antecedents as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during Obasanjo presidency. Unfortunately, one thing led to the other and the Senate denied him confirmation for appointment as Minister.
President Tinubu defied the prediction of bookmakers when he chose Adebayo Adelabu, a former Deputy Governor of Central Bank (CBN) and defeated 2019 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State as Minister of Power. Being an accountant, nobody gave Adelabu a chance to serve in the Power Ministry.
Since his appointment, things have deteriorated in the power sector. Prior to the announcement of the tariff increase, lawyer and activist, Deji Adeyanju called for Adelabu’s sack, lamenting the “darkness everywhere” across the country. Adeyanju described the Minister as clueless, saying he had taken the country 10 years backwards with his incompetence.
Statistics show that Nigeria’s electricity generation capacity, which recorded at least 1.1 percent growth since 2010, plunged since Adelabu became Minister. On October 8, 2023, less than two months after Adelabu assumed duties as the Minister of Power, the Punch reported that power generation plunged by 2,324 megawatts, which the Federal Government attributed to deteriorating plants/units capacities and poor maintenance, among others. Although Nigeria allegedly has an installed capacity of 22,000 megawatts, generation neared 5000 megawatts by May 2023 when Buhari left office.
Going by the facts before us, Femi Falana cannot be faulted for dismissing Adelabu’s reasons for the tariff hike as “pedestrian.” Even if the tariff is N1000/KWh, very few Nigerians who sit on the high table like Adelabu and fly private jet from Abuja to any part of the country, can still afford to keep their freezers on, when they are not at home. What then happens to millions of non-governmental Nigerians, living on N30, 000 minimum wage eroded by inflation? Like Falana said, those leaving their freezers on are paying for it. Hence, it should not be the headache of Adelabu.
Is it not disgraceful that a country with an estimated population of 230 million people is relying on less than 5000 megawatts of electricity? No country ever industrialised with meagre 5000 megawatts. The President appointed Adelabu to kill the leviathan holding down the power sector. He is not the Minister of electricity distribution. Regrettably, the distribution companies are now dictating to him.
Fashola did not allow anybody to dictate to him. With the aid of the cabal in the Buhari presidency, they made sure he was eased out of the way. I only blame Fashola for not revisiting the fraudulent privatisation done under Jonathan, which handed over Nigeria’s choice electricity assets to some dubious characters who now wish the owners of the assets to pay through their nose to enjoy electricity.
A serious Minister should be concerned about the frequent collapse of the national grid? Within three months this year, it collapsed twice. It collapsed 46 times between 2017 and 2023. What makes the grid collapse, if not vandalism, obsolete equipment, shortage of gas supply to the generating companies or mismatch between generation and distribution? These are issues the Minister should tackle holistically. Simply hiking the tariff amounts to tackling the problems in bits and pieces.
Nigerians are becoming tired of this frequent noise about cost reflective tariff as if tariff hike alone will solve all the problems bedeviling our power sector. A genuine tariff reforms must also consider the interest of the consumers of the electricity.
The frequent comparison of Nigeria’s tariff system with sister African countries like Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Niger and the likes, is unhelpful. Ironically, one or two of these countries get electricity supply from Nigeria.
So, I agree with Falana that the new tariff hike is making Nigerians to pay for the inefficiency and profligacy of those managing the electricity sector. If those running the distribution companies at the moment cannot expand their infrastructure to improve their revenue, let them give way, to allow new investors to come in. After all, we know how some of these distribution companies were acquired.
For example, who in the South East does not know how the rules guiding the privatisation process were violated to enable Interstate Electrics to acquire the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) ahead of the more competent Geometric Power Limited. I am sure the same scenario played out in the privatisation of other distribution companies.
More than ten years after, no value has been added to the electricity sector in the South East. On the contrary, Vice President Kashim Shettima recently commissioned the 188-megawatt power plant built by Geometric Power in Aba. The plant supplies electricity to nine local government areas in Abia. It is described as the biggest private investment in the South East region. I will allow my reader to conclude on which, among the two companies is more competent to manage the EEDC.
In conclusion, I know that we have a listening President. For the sake of suffering Nigerians, the Federal Government should reverse the tariff hike. The Minister should refocus his attention towards tackling the challenges facing the sector holistically. He must not help a few selfish individuals to make a fortune out of the misery of others in the society.
• Nzomiwu is the Director of Media and Publicity, Development Communication Research Association of Nigeria (DECRAN). He wrote from Awka, Anambra State.