Group advocates “No Payment of Electricity Bills campaigns”

The recent hike in electricity tariff by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has continued to be unpopular and generating protest from notable stakeholders  across the country.

Accordingly, the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), a political group still on transition to becoming a political party, has given impetus to the rising  protests of the new electricity tariff regime announced by the Federal Government by advocating overarching resistance to payment of electricity bills till the tariff is reversed.

SPN, in a statement by its National Chairperson, Segun Sango, solicited the intervention of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to mobilise and lead a sustained mass protest of the hike in electricity tariff. “We also call on communities across the country to resist this further exploitation and launch a No Payment of Bills campaigns,” Sango stated.

It was recalled that on December 8, 2015, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, at a press conference, mandated the NERC and the Distribution companies (DISCOs) to come up with “fair market tariff”. “Two weeks after, Sam Amadi, the out gone NERC Chairman, announced a new regime of electricity tariff,” Sango lamented. The Socialist Party of Nigeria, thus, condemned this pro-rich economic philosophy of addressing basic needs of the working masses.

SPN stated that consumers across the country are overwhelmingly averse to tariff hike because in addition to over-billing mostly imposed on consumers through estimated billing system, there is monumental rip-off through various means and poor electricity supply. “However, if the priority of Buhari administration is to hike tariff, then, the change All Progressives Congress (APC) promised Nigerians is a continuation of the ruinous policies under previous governments,” the group argued.

The group noted that though the new tariff regime assume to seek to discourage over-billing, it argued that the fact that majority of consumers are not provided meteres means that estimated billing system will continue; adding that, consumers will still pay for the electricity not consumed. It remarked that besides, “while the NERC has been forced by struggles in communities to scrap the fixed charge, the Commission cleverly inputs it into the new tariff.”

SPN contended that the hike in tariff is a flagrant disobedience of a subsisting court order. It narrated that on May 28, 2015, Justice Muhammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos, gave an order that electricity tariff should not be hiked pending the determination of the suit brought before it by a human right lawyer, Barrister Tolu Adebiyi. The matter is coming up on February 11 and 15, 2016 for hearing; NERC and the DISCOs are both defendants, the group noted. “The recent actions of Sam Amadi and Fashola smack of executive recklessness,” it protested.

It was highlighted that the new electricity tariff regime will jerk up electricity bills by about 45 per cent and will take effect from January 2016. “The government is quick to hike tariff whereas minimum wage is paltry N18,000. While the Federal Government has placed a wage freeze, the governors are threatening to either sack workers or reduce the wage of workers. These further underscore the ant-workers/poor of the government at all levels,” SPN stated.

The group was of the view that hike in tariff confirms that the Buhari administration is going to unleash anti-poor policies just like the previous governments. it argued that this is more so, when the present government is made up of anti-poor and neo-liberal demagogues and apostles like  Fashola. “The masses were expecting Fashola to mandate the DISCOs to end estimated over-billing by metering all consumers that need them as well as the power companies to invest more to improve the electricity supply to consumers rather, as usual, they took the side of investors at the expense of the suffering working masses. This further confirms that government at all levels will impose more austerity policies on the working masses while the privileged few continue to live in opulence and extravagance,” SPN declared.

“Is it not a failure of the ruling elite for Nigeria that ranks seventh largest oil and gas deposits in the world with about 200 tcf to be having problems supplying gas to power plants whereas the oil companies flare about 2 bcf/pd of gas? How do we explain the fact that gas is transported to Ghana and some other West Africa countries through West Africa Gas Pipeline Project (WAGP) in a distance of about 620 miles whereas gas to power plants in Nigeria with a distance of less than 200 miles is difficult,” the group protested.  SPN questioned the kind of Joint Venture Partnership Nigeria has with multinational companies in the oil and gas sector that prioritize the supply of gas to international market while starving local consumption and power plants? The group decried that Nigeria produces five billion scf of gas everyday and exports four billion scf and shockingly retains one billion scf for domestic use with preference to industries while power plants are left with little.

It was also noted that the market logic that rests on profit for a few has made it possible for big oil companies in collaboration with Nigerian elite to keep exploiting the oil and gas reserves while the masses suffer.

“The generating companies want to pay about $2 per unit of gas while the gas company wants to sell at international market price of about $4. Most worrisome is that none of the private power companies or the multinational gas companies is committed to building gas infrastructure to the power plants like pipelines. Hence, it is not a fantasy that Nigeria has the lowest per-capital electricity consumption in sub Saharan Africa despite spending a whopping sum of $20 billion since 1999,” SPN highlighted.

“It is a contradiction that while big businesses and the Nigerian government subject the domestic economy to international price mechanism, wages and salaries earned by Nigerians is one of the poorest in the world. Privatisation and deregulation bring more exploitation and suffering for the working masses,” SPN contended.

It was noted that in the last five years, electricity tariff has been increased on a yearly basis, yet supply of electricity remains more epileptic. “To show the lack of capacity, the power companies are cap in hand begging the government for bailout and have actually got about N50 billion without any noticeable improvement,” the group remarked. SPN advocated that if Nigeria will come out the woods, including resolving the myriad of problems which include and not limited to fuel scarcity, epileptic power supply, infrastructures deficit, etc., it has to abandon the profit-first capitalist system. The way forward is for the oil and gas companies, including the power sector and other commanding heights of the economy to be nationalized (owned publicly) and subjected to democratic control and management by workers and consumers as a means of fostering efficiency and ending corrupt practices, the group recommended.

However, it should be noted that such recommendation is impracticable at the current stage of the country’s socioeconomic development. Though, the unmitigated hikes in tariff would have spillover effects of increasing the cost of production in the various sectors of the economy which in effect could lead to further decline in job creation and corresponding rise in unemployment, as well as inflation.