EHIME ALEX, Lagos
A Lagos based non-governmental organization, the Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), has commended the leadership of the National Assembly on the part it took to stop the planned hike in electricity tariff.
This was contained in a recent statement signed by its National Cordinator, Barrister Emmanuel Nwaghodoh.
The planned hike was to have commenced July 1, 2020, after the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) reached an agreement for the increment.
However, the NASS hated the move and convincingly requested the DisCos to defer the plan till the first quarter of 2021.
The group said: “the National Assembly leadership, waded into the controversy on the planned hike, met with the Chief Executives of the government electricity regulatory body and DISCOs across the country on the need to defer the plan. The National Assembly leadership, which going by reports, met with the key players are; the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Right Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila and other principal officers of the two Chambers.
“This development, SEJA added, is not only commendable but portrays the National Leadership as true representatives who understand the excruciating economic hardship Nigerians currently but stoically endure.
“It could be recalled that the Group had during a focused group discussion on the new electricity tariff regime organized recently in Lagos, which was recorded in depth and reported in an opinion article titled; Power Sector Reforms And Tariff Hike, published by national dailies, queried; why is FG coming up with such a plan at a time the global community is concerned that COVID-19 has caused massive shocks to both the informal and formal economies and unearthed massive inequalities within our societies and in Africa?
“And coming at a time the World Bank estimates that the Sub-Saharan Africa region will see significant economic decline, and plunge to as low as -5.1% this year. Can such decision be adjudged as right in a society that unemployment rate is currently, going by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), report, at 28% and under-employment at 16% with many other expected? At a time when manufacturing companies are leaving the country in droves as a result of high cost of doing business in the country? And in the face of these realities concluded that, if the proposed tariff is allowed, it will become yet another ‘man-made code that neither squares with moral laws nor uplifts human personalities’”.
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