Electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) across the country in conjunction with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) were already executing the new tariff they had imposed on Nigerians earlier this year before the intervention of the Senate, last week stopping them from further implementation until the outcome of a public hearing that would be carried out by its relevant committees.

The Senate had based its decision on the biting economic hardship arguing that it was unrealistic to increase electricity tariff, with the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, saying that Nigerians were already on  “life support”.

The Senate also mandated its Committees on Labour and Power to meet with the relevant agencies of government and find a lasting solution, and in the meantime, to conduct public hearings on the matter in oder to come to an informed final decision.

We appreciate the wisdom in the intervention and subsequent action taken by the Senate and urge all parties to key into this window of mutual understanding in resolving the issues.

Without prejudice to the outcome of the public hearing and the meeting between the legislative committees and the government agencies, we urge the parties to take into consideration the salient facts surrounding this logjam.

First, the DISCOS have continually lamented the poor state of the electricity infrastructure they inherited coupled with the harsh operating environment which, they said, have made development and effective service delivery nearly impossible. They have also argued that Nigeria’s electricity tariff is one of the lowest in Africa.

Consequently, they believe that for the services to improve, commensurate tariff needs to be paid to enable them and the government increase investments in electricity infrastructure re-development.

But it appears an unfair logic to collect money from the consumers before offering required services. We believe that the DISCOS should invest in their businesses, provide reliable power supply and charge a justifiable tariff to recoup their investment.

We suspect that the DISCOS apparently discovered a huge gap in their due diligence for the acquisition of interests in the electricity business only to resort to remedial actions after committing their funds.

Unfortunately this is not the time to impose additional burdens on the weary purchasing power of the average Nigerian neither is it a convenient time for government’s financial intervention given our dwindling revenue.

Part of the middle ground to be reached could include rigorous interrogation of how they arrived at the new tariff, the actual cost of delivering electricity to the consumers and an equitable profit margin.

Government can still intervene through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a form of concessionary loan or even government’s non-controlling temporary equity investments in the DISCOS to free consumers from the harsh cost of infrastructural investments.