Aribigbola Afolabi

In Nigeria, it is a common knowledge that electricity supply is a luxury enjoyed almost exclusively by the affluent members of the society and a service that is scarcely available especially to the poor. The services provided by the distribution companies (DisCos) in recent times have dropped significantly as many communities and individuals have been without electricity supply for months and in some cases, years as is the present situation in the Southern part of Ondo state where they have not enjoyed electricity for upward of about eight years now. This did not concern the power that be and the DisCos but their interest or preoccupation is to raise tariff astronomically to their benefits.

Also, the country has witnessed many times the collapse of the national grid, cutting supply of electricity to the people and yet the government found it expedient not to address this retrogressive development but to hike tariff. Against the very poor electricity supply by the DisCos in the country and their failure to metre all their customers as directed by The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the federal government through the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu informed the nation of the unprecedented increase in electricity tariff across the country.

According to the Minister, band A customers’ tariff will be increase by humongous 240 percent, while subsidised power pricing regime would be for a short term, with a short transition plan to achieve full cost-effective tariff within a period of three years. In other words, the plan of the government is to achieve full deregulation of the power sector in the next three years.

He went further to justify the hike by blaming Nigerians for wasting electricity by indefinitely putting on their freezers and air conditioners because of low tariff and that in other climes where citizens pay commensurate tariff, they often put off their appliances to conserve and reduce energy consumption. One wonders where he got his information because in those prosperous societies, power supply seldom fails and consumers are not cheated the way they are often cheated in Nigeria. In any case, can any sane person off their appliances in the face of intermittent and unreliable power supply? An indication that the Minister as a privileged Nigerian is not in tune with the reality in a country where majority are without electricity supply most times.

This is not even our concern because over the years leaders in the country have shown insensitivity to the plight of the people unlike in the more prosperous societies where the welfare and prosperity of their societies are their primary purpose of being in government. The present hike in electricity tariff amidst widespread poverty and unprecedented inflation and high cost of living smack of insensitivity to the plight and reality of the crisis pervading the entire Nigerian landscape. Surprisingly, this has not become a serious source of worry to the leaders of the country but have preoccupy themselves with unfriendly and inhuman policies inflicting hardship on the citizens.

Indeed, why will a government that promised severally not to increase electricity tariff recently suddenly woke up to reverse itself to introduce the highest percentage of increase in electricity tariff in the history of the country knowing fully well that already the citizens are suffering the debilitating outcomes of economic policies of fuel subsidy removal and floating of the national currency, the naira in the open market that have produced high cost of consumer goods and services and untold hardship for  majority of the people of Nigeria. Is the government aware of the extent of the magnitude of the sufferings of the people. If they are aware, one is not sure they will further impoverish the already poverty stricken masses of the country with more price increases.

Of course, this seemingly unpopular and insensitive decision is coming against the backdrop of high incidence of poverty and unprecedented inflation causing serious sufferings. This is against the constitution of this country that explicitly and unequivocally states that the country shall provide for the welfare and prosperity of her people. When one interrogates the current almost 300 percent hike in electricity price and other previous unfriendly policies of the government including fuel subsidy removal and devaluation of the national currency to make more local currency available to government at the expense of the people, one begins to conclude that the government care less about the welfare of the people.

I have been musing over this development since the announcement of the increase by the Minister and I came to the conclusion that some things are missing. That there seems to be a disconnect between the governed and the government. Since the announcement of the huge hike, I have been wondering whether the government is aware of the precarious living conditions of the people of the country and the fact that the electricity that have been often described as epileptic in supply is not available and where available insufficient to support small and medium scale businesses and one of the motivations for many industries that relocated from the country was lack of energy to run their industries. Unfortunately, instead for the government to concentrate their energy on generating more power, their focus is to help the DisCos to continue to milk and defraud their ‘captive’ customers beyond billing without electricity supply so that they will continue to make humongous profits without rendering services to the people.

Available information revealed that customers under Band A are those who enjoy 20-24 hours of electricity supply daily while those in Band B are subscribers who enjoy 16 to 20 hours. Those in Band C enjoy 12 to 16 hours daily. Band D subscribers are beneficiaries of eight to 12 hours daily and Band E subscribers only enjoy four to eight hours of electricity consumption every day. I made bold to state that these classifications were created to deceive and defraud Nigerians. This is because besides the fact that it is discriminatory and against the spirit and purpose of Nigerian constitution, there is no place for instance where people enjoy up to 16 hours of power supply in Ondo State for instance and in many cases, people don’t enjoy any power supply near their categorization.

Thus the suggestion that the electricity tariff hike became inevitable following cash flow constraints arising from FG’s inability to pay obligations to the Nigeria Electricity Market and government harking to the recommendations of World Bank to removal subsidies on all goods and services seems to be plausible in explaining current action of government. From the above it is evident that the current hike in electricity tariff to Nigerians is in the best interest of the country and it will further worsen the poor relationship between the citizens and the government that is expected to secure the welfare and good living for their people. And since the government exists to further the interest and the good of the people, it is better the federal government reverses itself and cancel the recent high increases in electricity supply in the country. This is essential because it will further emasculate and invariably kill small businesses that are struggling to survive. It will increase the cost of doing business, increase the cost of essential goods and services across the country and increase the cost of living by Nigerians. The leadership of Nigeria cannot continue to please the World Bank and IMF while inflicting punishments on their people.