The Coalition for Affordable and Regular Electricity, CARE, has described as a ruse, the order by President Muhammadu Buhari for mass metering in order to end estimated billing.
The group said from all indications, there was no concrete plan to resolve the estimated billing policy which had led to the exploitation of the masses.
The position of the group was expressed in a statement issued on Sunday by its national co-ordiantor, Mr. Chinedu Bosah and the national secretary, Mr. Shoyombo Monsuru.
CARE argued that the only thing government stated in response to estimated billing was the president’s approved waiver of import levy on meters, which it said was incapable of metering 5 million consumers.
Said the group: “We want to remind Nigerians that the Meter Asset Providers, MAP, have been licensed by NERC and the federal government to sell meters to Nigerians at exorbitant prices and this policy is still in place.
“For instance, Ikeja Electric has hiked the price of meter from N39,765.86 and N72,085.68 for single-phase and three-phase metres respectively to N48,263.37 and N89,063.33. Going by these exorbitant and unwarranted charges, it is clear that the vast majority who are suffering under the weight of the rising cost of living engendered by anti-poor and neo-liberal policies will not be able to procure these meters.”
The group said it maintained its earlier position that the provision of meters was the sole responsibility of the Distribution Companies because it was a means of measuring supply and should not be the responsibility of the consumers who pay for electricity consumed.
It said besides, the cost of metering had been embedded in the tariff hike of MYTO 2012 that came into effect on June 1, 2012.
“How on earth the government and NERC turned 180 degrees and came out with a policy that unjustly forces the consumers to pay for meters is mindboggling? This shows the level of travesty and crude exploitation; President Buhari or NERC has not reversed the MAP policy and has not stated clearly how it wants to meter 5 million households either. This pronouncement is one of the many wishful thinking meant to play to the gallery and deceive Nigerians,” the group said.
“On tariff reviews, President Buhari and NERC have not reversed or canceled the new tariff but only suspended it till January 2021 on the persuasion of the National Assembly in June 2020. The service-based tariff principles being espoused by President Buhari and NERC is already being implemented by the Distribution Companies across the federation.
“For instance, Ikeja Electric runs a policy called Premium Power that gives much more regular electricity supply of 20 hours on the average and customers are made to pay as high as N55 per kilowatt. Premium Power targets rich neighbourhoods like Magodo, Hiltop Estate etc., while the poorer communities are condemned to darkness. “Service-based principles negate the principles of fairness and equality, it is apartheid, it is discriminatory and it violates section 14, 15, 17 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution as well as Section 76 (2e) of Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 which outlaws any form of undue discrimination between electricity consumers and other electricity consumer categories including discrimination of any kind,” CARE added.
The group said electricity sector had gulped over $25 billion public funds since 2005 without any meaningful improvement.
According to it, most of the public funds had only fattened the bank accounts of the rich few, particularly the private electricity companies and the cronies in government.
It said should the huge funds be utilized efficiently, the power sector would have been improved considerably with its attendant drastic improvement in electricity supply and affordability in the tariff.
It declared: “Coalition for Affordable and Regular Electricity (CARE) demands the reversal of the power sector privatization, because as usual, it serves the interest of a few at the expense of the vast majority; we demand affordable tariff; we demand mass public investment in the power sector and issuance of prepaid meters to all at no cost to consumers.
“To bring about transparency and efficiency, we demand the renationalisation of the power sector under democratic control and management of workers and consumers.”
