Cabals have hijacked power sector in Nigeria—Energy experts

Following speculations on increase in electricity tariff, experts in the energy sector said Nigerians could no longer breathe as the hardship is been aggravated, hence they called for a wholistic overhauling of the sector as they give conditions for Nigeria to have an efficient and sufficient Power supply.

In an interview on AIT yesterday, a professor of Energy Law, Yemi Oke who spoke via Skype from Canada, said there was no need for increased electricity tariff since the power sector was not well structured stressing that the process of privatisation of the power sector was grossly fraudulent.

Oke maintained that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) would continue to increase electricity tariffs because the legal framework of the sector has not been followed, and as a result, Nigeria would never get to its desired destination of self-sufficient power supply for all Nigerians.

“We can’t do the right thing in a wrong way or the wrong thing in the right way. How can the federal government be subsidizing a sector that has been privatised? The subsidy is not beneficial to Nigerians. There is massive fraud in the system.

He continues, “It is high time Nigeria moved out of centralized governance of electricity sector, we need a concurrent power sector regime. There are regulatory lapses and inefficiency. We need to revisit the process of privatisation,” he added.

On his part, the Secretary-General, Nigerian Union of Electricity Employee (NUEE) Joe Ajaero, stressed that it was unfortunate the federal government would always deny a hike in tariffs but later enforce on it Nigerians, adding that the tariff electricity consumers have paid after privatisation has increased by 400%.

According to him, such a decision to increase the Electricity tariff was insensible as citizens groan in agony, noting that the goodwill of the president was at stake.

“This decision is not competitive at all, it weakens our economy. I think there is a powerful clique and regulatory hijack that has taken over which makes them ignore us when we ask questions or call for discourse,” he asserted.

Also speaking, the president, Nigeria Electricity Consumer Protection Network, Kunle Olubiyo, said most federal government’s policies are suffocating Nigerians,adding that there is a need for the NERC Act 2021, to be specifically tailored to the activities of NERC.

“We supposed to move to the post-transition Electricity market and have specific rules because there are a lot of gaps, so we need institutional, governance, Regulatory and legal reform framework and revisit the obnoxious 2013 privatisation exercise which was done to entrench monopoly to alienate the masses.

Until this is done, we won’t get it right with the power sector. Let Mr President lift this elitist yoke off our necks,” he charged.