The organised Labour, Tuesday, called on Nigerians to reject the recent hike on electricity tariff by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), describing the adjustment as wicked and callous.
Both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and her Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart while reacting the adjustment of tariff from N2.00 to N4.00 per kilowatt (kwhr) said they were against the spirit of social dialogue for another hike while a standing committee of government which NERC is part of was yet to turn in her report.
Labour said doing this at a time other countries of the world were subsidising electricity for her citizens to cushion the effect of covid-19 on the economic, health and the world work was unacceptable.
NLC president Comrade Ayuba Wabba in an interview said, “this is not only condemnable but there is also some area of deceit in it. You remember there is a standing committee of the federal government, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission is part of that is still working on how to address the recent electricity hike which labour intervened and most members of that committee are not even aware of.
“Basically we are going to resist it and Nigerians must also stand up to resist it because it is like exploitation and this won’t end and when you look at the variables is even laughable.
“The variables according to NERC are inflation, exchange rate which is supposed to be the responsibility of the government. The government is supposed to address our economies by bringing the exchange rate to the barest level same with inflation and so they are transferring the inefficiency of government to the consumers which I think the implications would be very severe.
“One is that most of our manufacturers both big and small would not be able to cope because they have been crying and the implications are that there would be some lay off because most people will now resort to importation instead of producing here at home.
“It would also affect the diversification policy and certainly it will further impoverish Nigerians especially workers because currently we are under the York of paying excessive charges over all services and on this very essential commodity is the worst.
“It is very unfortunate because in many countries the government subsidises power to its citizens due to the impact of covid-19 on businesses, health and in the world of work. It’s unfortunate also because in many climes, government is subsidising power because of the impact of Covid19 on businesses, impact of Covid19 on health including African countries, we have statistics of countries that actually assisted to make sure that electricity tariff is even suspended for sometimes and there hasn’t been increase, but unfortunately, I don’t think we have looked at all of these and the implication is that there would be great consequences if not challenged, and organized labour would try to look at the issue and respond appropriately.
“I assure you because it has been and bastardized the work of this committee that we thought social dialogue would be able to bring solution.
“ It’s one issue that affect every family and every business, therefore, is a very sensitive issue that government need to be very sensitive, and i have said time without number that the Nigerian Electricity Regulations Commission (NERC) is hand in glove with the service providers instead of siding with the customers.
“Even the very important laws that are put in place to guide such arbitrary increase have not been respected. for instance, the customer forum which i remember we held in Kano and which i know we resisted this particular increase because it has to no bases, in fact, part of the work the committee is doing is to in fact look at the price of Gas to the generating firms to be able to bring down the current price before this increase. So it has certainly bastardized the process of social dialogue.”
