The power distribution companies (DisCos) have formally applied to the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for a 40 per cent tariff increase.
With the unprecedented hardship plaguing Nigerians after the chaotic withdrawal of petrol subsidy, the only thing standing between electricity consumers and additional torment is NERC’s approval of the tariff hike.
The planned 40 per cent tariff hike would take the cost of one kilowatt hour of electricity in Ikeja Electric from N45.8 to N63. At the current tariff, consumers get 20.3 kilowatt hours of electricity for N1,000. The planned tariff hike would reduce it to 15.8 kilowatt hours.
Consumers dwelling in standard three-bedroom flats with pre-paid meters would spend N15,000 per month on electricity bills. They spend N1, 500 per night on fuel for their generators. That takes the monthly cost of power to N60,000. Prior to the tragic petrol subsidy withdrawal, the bill hovered around N23, 000.
Those without pre-paid meters pay monthly estimated bill of N28,000. The cost of generator fuel takes their monthly power bills to N73, 000.
There are fears that NERC is inclined to approve the DisCos’ request even as a school of thought within NERC argues that the DisCos are light years behind the industry requirements for tariff increase approval.
The school of thought within NERC opposed to tariff hike contend that the DisCos have not updated their distribution equipment like transformers and even the cables transmitting power to consumers’ homes even as they are itching for record-breaking tariff increase.
They also contend that the DisCos are dodging their responsibility when it comes to the supply of pre-paid meters to consumers.
Besides, the tariff hike demanded by the DisCos is supposed to follow considerable improvement in power supply. Opponent of tariff hike within the regulatory agency contend that some communities remain in darkness for 20 hours in a day. The DisCos can only supply power in those areas for four hours in a whole day.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against tariff hike, there are fears that the inconsequential majority opposed to tariff hike might be shoved aside by the powerful minority with soft spot for the DisCos.
The issue of electricity tariff subsidy is not as contentious as that of petrol. As at May 29 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu slighted his speech writers and announced that “petrol subsidy is gone”, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) was subsidising petrol with N294 per litre and deducting it on a daily consumption figure of 98 million litres.
Electricity subsidy is pretty cheap. While the federal government was funding close to 80 per cent of the cost of a litre of petrol, it only pays for a scant six per cent of the cost of a kilowatt hour of electricity at the moment.
That amounts to less than N57 billion per quarter. The federal government spent just N157 billion on electricity subsidy in 2022. Electricity consumers pay 94 per cent of the cost of the service.
The truth is that the federal government would be pushing its luck too far if it ignores the suffering imposed on the populace by the pre-emptive strike on petrol subsidy and approves the tariff hike demanded by the DisCos.
The agony is just too palpable for any more hardship to be added by way of electricity tariff hike. It could be the last straw that would break the camel’s back. Last week after a consumer bought petrol at N617 per litre, he angrily walked to a campaign poster of President Tinubu and slapped the president’s face on the lifeless poster.
A senseless and insensitive hike on electricity tariff could provoke consumers into slapping humans rather than posters.
The federal government has no moral right to ask for more sacrifices from Nigeria’s inconsequential majority. Everything on the ground suggests that government is just punishing the voiceless majority to make life even more ostentatious for the few politicians and top civil servants fleecing the country through indecent opulence.
While government is still debating the pittance to be thrown at an insignificant fraction of Nigeria’s 140 million people in abject poverty, over-pampered members of the National Assembly have allocated to themselves a princely sum of N70 billion as palliative.
A whooping N40 billion would be used to acquire bullet-proof limousines for leaders of the National Assembly. Ironically, Nigeria is so broke that it services its mountain of debt with 93 per cent of revenue.
Even as the president keeps calling on Nigerians to make more sacrifices, everything is just like the Sultan of Sokoto lamented three weeks ago that it is only the down trodden that are making the sacrifices.
Politicians and top civil servants live in incongruous opulence in the midst of abject poverty. Government fuels their fleet of gas-guzzling limousines while they still loot the treasury in addition.
The only way government can sell the electricity tariff hike to impoverished consumers is to compel politicians and top civil servants to make the same sacrifices currently being made exclusively by the down trodden.
Government must compel its top officials to use cars with maximum engine capacity of 2.00cc. Politicians and top civil servants cannot live like kings while government is tormenting the down trodden with insensitive tariff hikes.
The DisCos do not deserve any tariff hike. Instead they should be compelled to step up power supply to reduce the suffering in the land.
Subsidy withdrawal has priced petrol beyond the reach of many motorists and power generator owners. Now that millions of power generators have been silenced in an economy that depends on them for 70 per cent of its electricity, a steep increase in public power tariff would impose total darkness on millions of homes that cannot afford the new tariff.
