Mohammed Shosanya
The Akwa Ibom Human Rights Community has challenged the federal government over claims of payment of subsidy on electricity tariffs in Nigeria.
At a recent electricity consumers forum meeting in Akwa Ibom,the group maintained there was no way subsidy could have existed since electricity distribution companies are profit-making organizations and doing do so to stay in business.
“How can the government claim that it was subsidizing the profit-making objectives of profit-making companies, which are not even supplying commensurate energy to the people”,the group queries in a communique signed by its National Coordinators,Barrister Clifford Thomas
The group advocated the need for the federal government to Nigerians the dynamics of subsidy removal in the power sector, to warrant the proposed increase in electricity tariffs.
It added:”If the federal government cannot explain, we therefore conclude that electricity subsidy is a scam”.
It urged the government to stop the planned electricity tariffs increase on the premise that the burden is already too heavy on Nigerians right now, and they cannot afford to pay more to electricity distribution companies.
It also advised that power generation must improve beyond what it is right now to about 15,000 megawatts, for easy transmission and distribution to end users, and to improve the manufacturing base of Nigeria.
It emphasized that the monopoly over gas should be broken, so that states with gas reserves could harness it to power electricity, cars,and domestic cooking.
It added:”This will stop the practice of gas wastage by flaring, which destroys the environment (human and natural), loss of islands in the state, rise in sea levels, shoreline recession, destruction of the ozone layer and other associated ills of gas flaring”.
According to the communique,all electricity consumers in Akwa Ibom State must be metered to enable them pay for power they consume, and not waste energy.
It added:The government of Akwa Ibom State should guarantee meters for consumers in the state by putting modalities in place to pay for, and recoup such investments as social and welfare services to the people in line with Chapter Two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.
“The Akwa Ibom State Government should establish electricity-utilizing profit-making entities that will generate,transmit, and distribute power in the most efficient and transparent manner. This will amount to implementing the Electricity Act 2023”