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Blackmail won’t deter us – NLC, TUC tell Discos

By on February 21, 2016

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have warned electricity distribution companies against blackmailing Nigerians with threats of blackout following the Senate’s advice that a 45 per cent increase in electricity tariff be reverted.

The labour unions, in separate interviews with our correspondent on Friday, said Nigerians would not be intimidated by threats by the Discos over its alleged move to force the tariff increment on Nigerians, adding that a review of the privatisation of the power sector might be necessary.

Following an advice by the Senate against the increment, the Discos had warned that the country might be thrown into a blackout in the future if the advice was heeded.

However, the General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, had described the statement by the DISCOs as ‘mere blackmail’.

He said, “The threat of a blackout is mere blackmail and the government has a duty to citizens to ensure that they are not taken for granted and blackmailed.

“But if they deliberately want to create darkness in order to blackmail people, then the whole process of privatisation will need to be revisited. It is possible to retrieve the sector from these people who bought national assets for almost nothing, and find alternative ways of moving forward.

“I don’t think that we should be blackmailed or subjected to this threat of darkness because if they do that, we will also mobilise consumers to call their bluff and the country will have to revisit the whole privatisation programme.

In his reaction, the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, described the Discos’ statement as ‘an empty threat.’

He said there had been no improvement in power supply since the Discos took over from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

He said, “I want Nigerians to understand that when the telecoms companies came on board, they invested their money, provided the base station and every facility and infrastructure themselves using their own funds. Then, they charged Nigerians, and the people willing to pay for the services paid, even as high as they were at the time.

“What we are saying is that if the companies don’t have the technical and financial competence to carry out a holistic transformation of the sector, they should own up and let companies that have the competence do the job come in.

“Now, they are not investing anything and they are not investors; they are only tariff collectors. So we want real investors to come and invest in the sector. If it is expensive, Nigerians know that with time, it will go down. They should stop looking for bailout.”

Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Bolaji Niniowo, has said that the Senate lacks the statutory power to suspend the implementation of an order made by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, a statutory agency.

Niniowo, in a document made available to the Saturday PUNCH, said the National Assembly, in 2005, enacted the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, which empowers the NERC to regulate tariff for transmission, generation, distribution and system operation.

“It was in the exercise of this statutory power that the NERC developed the Multi-Year Tariff Order 2015, which is now the subject of the Senate’s directives,’ he said.

He, therefore, urged the Senate to rather direct the Discos to fulfil their contractual agreements, which include investment in metering to ensure that customers are billed for the electricity they consume.
[Punch]