The Deputy National Organizing Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Nze Chidi Duru, has called upon President Bola Tinubu to take action towards revoking the concession agreement with electricity providers in the country, citing their monumental failure.
According to him, the current tariff hike for some consumers is one policy capable of hurting the electoral viability of the APC, saying this is one policy that must not stand.
“This has unintended consequences for the government and for the party. People are groaning on account of difficulties and I call on the regulators to go to the Nigeria Communication Commission NCC and learn what they have been able to do. This is one policy that must not stand,” he warned.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, Duru said it is not the duty of Nigerians to buy transformers, provide electrical poles and fund other installations that should naturally have been provided by the Distribution Companies DISCOS and in some cases the Generating Companies GENCOS.
Expressing anger over what he described as unjustifiable disparity in electricity tariff, Duru claimed that the fact that Nigerians still fund such installations for the service providers is proof that they (companies) have not lived up to their expectations.
Reacting to the recent hike through segmentation of consumers into bands, the former federal lawmaker noted that the inability of the service providers to improve their services in the past 15 years indicates their unworthiness and continued exploitation of Nigerians.
Asked if he is demanding that government reviews the concession agreement, Duru angrily replied: “Of course, it has come to that. If they look at the terms of the contract government signed with the operators and if there is sufficient reason government should take over the agencies, DisCos and GenCos. It should because none of them have delivered on the duties imposed on that contract.
“Otherwise, why is it that Nigerians are still buying their transformers, cables, providing electricity for themselves, still generating power through other sources and still consuming diesel at inappropriate levels?
“Those selling generators are selling more than before and the volume of kilowatts of power available in the country continued to hover around 2000 to 6000 and never go beyond that. Was that not a reflection that there is not enough investment in that industry and a reflection that those operators don’t understand the business?
“It is an indication that what they are there to do is to impose hardship on the average Nigerian and there are sufficient grounds to do that.
“It is a pity that this is happening at the time the government is working very hard to tackle inflation, provide basic amenities to Nigerians and yet an agency of government can impose such inordinate charges and bills without base and background on the people of these country.
“They did it without the requisite checks and balances of what is needed to be done in the first place. It doesn’t work on the sense of logic that this should even happen in the first place,” Duru said.
