By Idowu Oyebanjo
The issues surrounding
cost reflective tariffs in NESI has remained unresolved even though it seemed
all stakeholders acknowledged it but did nothing about coming together to deal
with the issue which has kept the reform process in limbo since February 2016!
This is about to change.
The two most important
stakeholders in the business of electricity supply in Nigeria are the
"demons" - those who believe that having a stable electricity
situation in Nigeria will mean a huge loss of cash flow for them and their
families and the customers who will actually pay the monies defined by any
"cost reflective tariff", short-changed without meters but made
impoverished by the corruption based estimated billing system which holds way
today in NESI. The demons may include "Generator" importers,
marketers, repair technicians and those involved in businesses connected with
the scarcely available gas and oil (fuel for most power generating plants) such
as marketers of petroleum products and the vandals who destroy gas pipelines to
earn income from those who carry out repair works or those who gain political
scores therefrom. These two groups of stakeholders have been grossly and
arrogantly neglected when decisions are made for them or because of them.
This
is not to say there are no other important stakeholders like the government, CBN,
NERC, Ministry of Power, consumer advocacy groups, ANED, NBET, DISCOs, GENCOs,
TCN, foreign investors, local Banks, to mention but a few. The senate has
thrown its weight behind the consumers of electricity declaring to put a stop
to the recurring spate of bail out for which we predicted will become the lot
of the ill-conceived, wrongly timed electricity market conjectured by some
unqualified Nigerians who mediated the reform process. But there is always a
time to make a U-turn in life when one is confirmed to be headed in the wrong
direction. It is a question how far wrong is one prepared to go before doing
the needful. In this regard, it is pertinent to examine the just released
framework for petroleum products supply, distribution and pricing in May 2016
by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
