By Chidi Ugwu
The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has described the planned “forced” migration of lower bands of electricity consumers to the Band A by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) as insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians who are being made to shoulder the failure of the power sector privatisation carried out in 2013.
RDI believes the decision will further widen the number of Nigerians facing energy poverty with grave implications on businesses, health care services and the overall development of the nation.
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RDI position is coming on the heels of last Thursday’s announcement of the plans by Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu and the barrage of condemnations it has garnered from various groups including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which is planning a nationwide showdown to stop the plans going forward.
In a statement issued in Lagos, RDI Executive Director, Philip Jakpor said: “It is very unfortunate that at a time that the World Bank has rated Nigeria the country with the largest absolute electricity access deficit, with 45 per cent of the population (90 million) lacking access to the electricity grid, the present administration is doing everything to push more Nigerians into darkness”
Jakpor said that RDI position aligns with that of the NLC which has described the ongoing problems in the power sector as systematic exploitation and economic violence against ordinary Nigerians.
“How else can you explain a power sector privatisation which has only unleashed huge costs on the ordinary citizens, incessant power outages and collapse of the national grid, large disparities in access between urban areas and rural areas and the forced closure of 25 percent of manufacturing firms according to the Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria?”
“To further rub salt on injury, the banding of Nigerians into different category of beneficiaries of electricity is in itself a class system that ensures that only the rich who can afford the astronomical costs can have electricity at the expense of the poor that are barely surviving”.
He pointed out that the indices nationwide are in the negative as residents of many communities where the gas that ultimately feed power plants hundreds of kilometers away are sited do not even get a flicker of light.
He insisted that the way forward is a reversal of the power sector privatisation and adoption of a multi-pronged approach that incentivises investments in renewable energy to complement the national grid within a public public partnership framework that leverages resources and expertise of successful models of public sector solutions.
“Increasing tariffs will only add to the burdens of Nigerians and sustain the culture of groping in the dark which the privatisation of the sector has unleashed. This drama is no longer acceptable”, he insisted.
