Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) yesterday disrupted operations of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and various distribution companies (DisCos) nationwide in protest over the recent hike in electricity tariffs and frequent power outages.
 
They barricaded entrances and prevented workers from gaining access to their offices. Chanting solidarity songs and brandishing placards with various inscriptions, the workers expressed concern over the announcement by NERC of an astronomical hike in electricity tariff across the nation from N65/Kwh to N225/Kwh.
  
The hike will result in massive job cuts as manufacturers will be forced to lay off workers due to a rise in production costs, the NLC and TUC maintained.
   
This was as the two labour camps picketed the head offices of NERC, Transmission Commission of Nigeria (TCN) and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in Abuja yesterday.
  
Though the tariffs for Band A customers have since been slashed by eight per cent from N225 per kilowatt hour to N206.80, the labour groups insisted the reduction was meaningless and could not achieve a noticeable impact on the manufacturing sector.
   
The protest began in the early hours of yesterday, when members of unions, in their hundreds, converged at the headquarters of NLC and proceeded to NERC headquarters. The protesters, after delivering their demands to NERC’s leadership, proceeded to the Transmission Commission of Nigeria and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
   
Some of the inscriptions on their placards read: ‘Increase regulatory oversight on DisCos and GenCos, not tariff increase on poor and innocent Nigerians’; ‘Let the poor breath’; ‘Give us affordable and constant power’; ‘N208 per kilowatt is killing, reverse it now’; and ‘Electricity tariff increase, not acceptable’.
   
Delivering the demands of workers to the chairman of NERC, NLC president, Joe Ajaero, said the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has been directed to order workers in the sector to cut off power supply to all areas where NERC and TCN offices are located across the country.
  
He said: “We are very serious about our demand that NERC and TCN reverse the recent tariff hike. The tariff is killing. It is killing businesses and Nigerians. As part of our protest, we have asked electricity workers under our centres to cut off the power supply in all NERC and TCN offices across the country. Please, review the current tariff. It is not worker friendly, and it is not acceptable.”
  
In a joint message, the two labour groups said: “Workers are hit hardest by the increase in electricity tariff. Unlike business people, wage-earning workers cannot adjust their income when the costs of utilities are increased. This stagnancy in wages amid increases in electricity and refined petroleum products pushes workers over and beyond the limits of sanity and survival. 
   
“Small and medium scale businesses which accommodate millions of workers in the informal economy are severely affected by increases in energy costs. Many such businesses are forced to shut down. The ancillary cost in crimes and social unrest is a daily living experience on our streets.”  
  
While reacting to the demands of the protesters, NERC chairman, Sanusi Garba, said the commission had heard all that Labour said, even as he commended the leaderships of NLC and TUC for peacefully conducting themselves.
   
He revealed that the commission would critically examine the positions of Labour on the increment.
Leading the picketing at the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) office at Alausa, in Lagos, chairperson of the NLC State Council, Funmi Sessi, and General Secretary of the TUC, Lagos State Council, Abiodun Aladetan, lamented that as the cost of living continues its upward trajectory, the recent surge in electricity tariffs was yet another blow to the already strained finances of ordinary citizens.  
   
They said the hike couldn’t have come at a worse time, coinciding with the removal of petrol subsidies and an alarming rise in the prices of essential goods and services. They stressed that the exorbitant exchange rate only exacerbates the financial woes facing the masses.
 
Sessi expressed the collective discontent of Nigerians, saying they are suffering despite living in a resource-rich nation. She criticised the Nigerian government for supplying electricity to neighboring countries while Nigerian citizens endured power cuts. She likened the situation to being in the middle of an ocean, yet dying of thirst.
   
“We are selling ourselves short while our people suffer. We do not have enough to take care of ourselves. Electricity in Nigeria has become a breeding ground for corruption. It is high time we united our voices and said enough is enough. The wealthy must bear the burden of the poor, and we must be allowed to breathe,” Sessi said.
 
The TUC helmsman, Aladetan, said the timing of the increase in electricity tariffs couldn’t be more ill-fated, given the prevailing economic challenges facing the country. He said urgent action was needed to alleviate the burden on citizens and businesses, and steer the economy towards a path of sustainable growth and prosperity. 
 
According to him, it was time for policymakers to prioritise the welfare of the people and implement measures that promote the affordability and accessibility of essential services like electricity.
   
Before now, NLC President, Joe Ajaero and his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, in a letter earlier addressed to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NERC, titled ‘Electricity Tariff Hike: Reverse or Face Resistance’, had threatened that failure by the government not to comply with reversing the tariff hike across the nation from N225/Kwh to N65/Kwh before Sunday, May 12, would result in swift and decisive action, as they would not hesitate to mobilise members and occupy their offices until justice is served.
 
According to Ajaero, organised labour considered the electricity tariff hike unreasonable and draconian, targeted at the masses that were already suffering. 
 
Ajaero said labour believed the decision was not just morally reprehensible, considering the difficulties Nigerians currently faced, but it blatantly disregarded fundamental principles and statutory obligations.
 
According to him, it was a slap in the face of justice and fairness, “and we will not stand idly by as the masses and workers are subjected to such unacceptable exploitation.”
 
Festus Osifo said the tariff hike not only defied the established procedure mandated by law but also trampled upon the rights of Nigerian citizens.  Meanwhile, the TUC, Ondo State chapter, said President Bola Tinubu has continued to compensate Nigerians who voted for him with harsh economic policies.
  
The TUC chairman in the state, Clement Fatuase, called on Tinubu to halt what he described as anti-masses policies, adding that the tariff hike will put more burdens on Nigerians.
  
Fatuase stated this during the protest organised in the state. He said: “The essence of this picketing is to register our displeasure on the service of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission and DisCos nationwide. The new electricity tariff is coming from a government that is heartless, a government that feels that the only thing they can use to compensate those people that voted for them is to add more burden and devalue the dignity of humanity.”
  
Also, speaking with journalists, the Ondo State chairman of NLC, Comrade Victor Amoko, described the recent hike in electricity tariff as unjustifiable.
 Amoko, flanked by the state JNC chairman, Comrade Ademola Olapade, and other affiliate union chairmen, noted with dismay the untold economic hardship the hike was causing the citizenry.
  
He said: “We discovered that the Federal Government is so silent over the tariff hike and we observed that the Federal Government is intentionally supporting them to frustrate us. We say no to increment in tariff. Before now, we didn’t have adequate electricity supply, despite paying huge amounts of money.
  
“In Akure for instance, for four days, we wouldn’t have electricity supply, yet they keep increasing the tariff. We are saying enough is enough. What they’re doing is clandestinely shortchanging the entire populace. We don’t want it anymore.”