Governors, minister raise issues over weak points in electricity bill

 

Governors of the 36 states of the federation and Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, have raised concerns over weak points in the Draft Electricity Bill 2022 before the Senate.

The governors, through a statement signed by their chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, said the proposed legislation is unconstitutional in view of the federal status of Nigeria.

The minister, on his part, expressed reservations on the bill during a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Powers. The governors, while objecting to the bill, said: “It would be unconstitutional and an unjustifiable act of overreach for the Senate to consider and pass a bill that continues to treat the federation as one single electricity jurisdiction or sector.

“While a single Electric Power Sector Reform Act may have been useful as a catalyst for the sector in the early years of the Fourth Republic, the states have all come of age, literally and metaphorically, and the arrangements must change in a way that accepts and respects the maturity of the states in electricity matters.”

The statement reads in part: “After 71 years of sole and unchallenged central control of the electricity sector, we live with an electricity sector divided into two parts. One part is the Federal Government-controlled and regulated national electricity market that today is insolvent, bankrupt and delivers no more than approximately 4,000MW/96,000MWh daily to 220 million Nigerians or an average of 18w/432watt-hours daily, barely enough to power two 10-watt light bulbs a day.

“The other part of Nigeria’s electricity sector is the alternative/back-up market, whose estimated capacity is approximately 40,000MW, so that Nigerian citizens are their own electricity providers in their homes, factories, schools, hospitals and places of worship.

“Our calculations indicate that if the 40,000MW of electrical back-up capacity owned and operated by Nigerians were to be delivered to them by licensed private IPPs and distribution companies through organised public electricity markets, Nigerian citizens and governments would have saved up to N17 trillion in 2021.”