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Electricity Tariff Hike: NLC, TUC, CSOs Blow Hot

Published

2 years ago

June 23, 2023

Editor

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, and civil society organisations, CSOs, have rejected the planned 40 per cent hike in electricity tariff, which takes effect on July 1, calling on government to shelve the increase.

While the NLC described the proposed increase in tariff as insensitive and callous, TUC said it is the height of insensitivity to the suffering of the masses of the country.

On their part, CSOs asked government to immediately shelve the proposed tariff hike, describing it as unfair and unjustifiable.

It will be recalled that in announcing the tariff increase, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, had said the current Service Based Tariff, SBT, was benchmarked on an exchange rate of N441/$ and inflation of 16.97 per cent.

It argued that since the value of the naira to the dollar now hovers above N700 and current rate of inflation at 22.45 per cent, it wis necessary to increase tariff to mitigate operators’ cost of operations.

Taking the lead in opposition to the planned tariff hike, NLC said with with contemplation of increase in school fees in tertiary institutions and already high fees in privately-owned ones, in addition to other costs/tariffs on the way, life in Nigeria could truly be Hobbesian.

The union in a statement by the President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, advised government to shelve the proposed tariff hike in the collective safety of the masses.

The statement read: “The plan to increase electricity tariff by 40% by July 1 is both insensitive and callous and reflects an organised indifference to the well-being of consumers, especially, the poor masses.

“The massive increase is explained away as a response to the over 100 per cent increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol.

“Details reveal a movement in inflation from 16.9% to 22.41 (threatening to needle 30), and a shift in exchange rate from N441 to N750.

“We believe not even these figures are a justification for this reckless proposed tariff increase.

“The issue of capacity to pay and quality of service delivery are not only germane but superior to any rationalisation by market logic.”

The NLC contended that there had been increases without notice in violation of statutes, saying “the service providers, in spite of sundry support, have not been able to meet the threshold of 5,000 megawatts.

“Coupled with this, there have been surreptitious increases without notice in violation of the statutes.

“The inherent risk in the new regime of tariff is that there is no control, implying that by August, consumers will pay new rates.

“The other risk is that by the time other product or service-rendering entities come up with their new prices or rates, the ordinary person would have been compacted into dust.

“We would want to advise apostles of market who have called NLC all sorts of names to check their conscience.

“The rate at which they are going is highly combative and combustible. With contemplation of payment of increased school fees in tertiary institutions and increases in privately-owned ones, in addition to other costs/tariffs on the way, life in Nigeria could truly be Hobbesian.

“The market economies, which the market fundamentalists seek to emulate, have in place socio-economic safeguards which we do not have.

“In light of this, our advice is that this proposed tariff hike should be shelved for our collective safety.”

Height of insensitivity to suffering masses—TUC

Reacting in a similar manner, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, described the planned hike as the height of insensitivity to the suffering of masses already finding it extremely difficult to cope with the removal of subsidy on petrol.

First Deputy President of the union, Dr Tommy Okon, urged the government to jettison the planned increase because it would compound the socio-economic woes of most Nigerians already over burdened with high inflation and general high cost of living.

He said: “This new government should consider the plight of the suffering masses who are already over-burdened with high inflation and general unbearable high cost of living and other socio-economic realities.

“The government just removed subsidy on petrol which has negatively affected the cost of living and worsened the poverty level across the country.

“The government should not be seen to be insensitive to the plight of the citizens and socio-economic realities in the country.

“Agreed that the government inherited a bad economy, but policies are not made to worsen the plight of the masses, but to improve the living conditions of the citizens, especially the poor.

“The planned 40 per cent hike in electricity tariff is the height of insensitivity. The government has set up a committee with organized labour to work out modalities and ways of cushioning the negative effects of the subsidy removal.

“But now, the government is already making the expected outcome of the committee useless by the planned hike. The government should jettison the planned hike.

Proposed tariff hike unfair, unjustifiable —CSOs

Also reacting to the proposed tariff hike, civil society organisations, CSOs, in the country described it as unfair and unjustifiable.

Reacting, Kolawole Oluwadare, Executive Director of Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, said: “If it is true that there is, indeed, plans to increase electricity tariff, then it is completely against the obligation of the government to the people.

‘’With the present state of the economy — removal of fuel subsidy and rising inflation — an increase in electricity tariff is going to further affect the economy more proportionately than any other thing. I think this should not be our priority now because it is going to affect Nigerians negatively.”

Also, the Chair, Board of Trustees, Amnesty International (Nigeria) and Head of Transparency International (Nigeria), who also serves as the Executive Director Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, urged government to reconsider its decision.

Musa stated: “The current administration must understand that it is only when Nigerians are alive and productive that they can contribute to the economy and overall development of the nation.”

The group further emphasized the need for subsidies in critical sectors such as agriculture, transportation, energy, housing, education, and health to make life more bearable for the average Nigerian.

On his part, Evans Ufeli, Executive Director, Cadrell Advocacy Centre, said: “The increase is arbitrary because if you look at the Electricity Act, there is a provision for consultation with consumers as to what price is workable for both parties.

“Unfortunately, that section has been discarded. Between 2021 and 2023, there has been an increase five times and in each case, the consumers were not consulted.

“There is need for some level of resistance to this planned increase. People should not stand aloof and allow such increase which will further impoverish the masses.”

Similarly, Felicia Onibon of Change Managers International Network Nigeria, said the proposed increase in tariff is unfair and will have negative implications for various aspects of the economy.

“It would lead to increased overhead costs for all businesses in the country, create hardship for young people who rely on cheap and affordable electricity to study at night or early hours of the day, and harm the environment by forcing families to resort to other forms of energy that can negatively impact the ecosystem.”

Also reacting, Princess Hamman-Obels, Director of the Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development, IRIAD, echoed Onibon’s sentiments, calling the proposed hike “anti-people, anti-poor and most insensitive to the Nigerian people.”

Hamman-Obels criticized the current administration for introducing harsh policies without consulting the people, stressing the importance of timing in policy implementation to allow for adjustment and adaptation.

In his reaction, Deji Adeyanju, convener of Concerned Nigerians for the Protection of Human Rights and the Rule of Law Initiative, also slammed the proposed increase as “unjustifiable and unfair.”

Adeyanju pointed out that under previous governments, Nigerians paid significantly less for energy, arguing that the current administration is out of touch with realities faced by the people.

“All over the world, even in advanced countries, the government subsidizes energy because of its pivotal role in driving the economy, supporting education and health sectors, and generally improving the well-being of the citizens. Why is Nigeria’s case different?” Adeyanju queried.

The tariff hike, which comes amid a monthly subsidy of about N50 billion in the electricity sector due to revenue shortfall, is set to challenge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s market reform efforts.
VANGUARD

Headline

Israel-Iran War: Stranded Nigerians Cry For Help From Underground Shelters

Published

5 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

Nigerians caught in the hostilities between Israel and Iran have called for help from underground shelters amid heavy exchange of missiles between the two countries.

Those who spoke to Saturday PUNCH slammed the Nigerian government for not doing enough, adding that other countries had started evacuating their citizens.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said it was awaiting border clearance to rescue over 1,000 Nigerians in the warring countries.

Rising casualties

According to reports, no fewer than 264 people, including 70 women and children, have died in the two countries since the war started.

The war began last Friday when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, with guided missiles and air raids pounding suspected Iranian nuclear and military sites, including air-defence installations, as well as residential areas in eastern Tehran, notably the Shahrak-e-Mahallati neighbourhood, home to senior IRGC commanders, and targets in Tabriz and other cities.

High-ranking Iranian military figures, including General Mohammad Bagheri and IRGC commander Hossein Salami, were among those killed in the Israeli offensive.

In a statement, Tehran described the strikes from Israel as “the most direct act of war” in decades of covert hostilities.

In a retaliatory response on June 13, 2025, Iran launched a large-scale missile barrage, firing over 100 ballistic missiles at Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, where the Nigerian embassy is located.

Checks by The PUNCH revealed that most Nigerians living in Israel are based in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Sources confirmed that nearly all economic, social, and religious activities have been suspended in major Israeli cities.

Nigerians recount ordeal

In separate interviews with our correspondents, some Nigerians living in major Israeli cities recounted their ordeals.

A Nigerian in Tel Aviv, Ekene Abaka, said since the onslaught began, members of the Nigerian community in the city had joined other foreigners to take cover in underground shelters provided by the Israeli military, pending an opportunity to escape the country.

“We are in an Israeli bomb shelter and I can’t answer calls right now,” Abaka said in a hasty Facebook message to The PUNCH.

A software engineer living in Jerusalem, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Nigerians in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem had been scrambling for the past few days since the face-off between the two nations started.

The source, who also claimed to be speaking from a bomb shelter, said though many Israelis had died, no casualties had been recorded among Nigerians so far.

He, however, lamented that the Nigerian embassy had closed all official and diplomatic activities without supporting distressed Nigerians in the country.

“Most of the areas where Nigerians live in Israel are in Tel Aviv. As a matter of fact, that is the main area where most of the missiles are going. I live in Jerusalem.

“There are about three families in Jerusalem from Nigeria, but the majority of Nigerians live in Tel Aviv. We are on the run.

“The Nigerian embassy is situated in Tel Aviv. It has shut down. It’s not doing anything about the issue at the moment. We ran into a bomb shelter to protect ourselves from missiles coming from Iran,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a video shared on Tuesday by Travels Vlog, a Facebook page documenting the daily experiences of Nigerians in Israel and other parts of the Middle East, some Nigerians were seen scrambling into a bomb shelter after the Israeli government sounded the security alarm, warning of incoming Iranian missiles.

“Everybody is running helter-skelter now. I didn’t grab my water. Oh! Those are the missiles there. They have fallen now,” one of them cried out in fear.

But as they approached one of the shelters, they found it locked.

“Oh! It’s closed. Why did they lock this place? Let’s go, there is another one over there. We can’t stay here. This place is not safe,” another voice urged as the group rushed off in search of an open shelter under the night sky.

When they finally reached a covered spot, they sat on the ground, visibly shaken, waiting as the blaring alarm slowly faded and the missiles vanished from sight.

The Travels Vlog host, identified as one Solomon, explained in a live video on Wednesday that people were informed about incoming Iranian missiles through a text message from the government.

“There are missiles coming in, but 10 minutes before they hit, the Israeli government detects them and sends us a direct message to immediately leave our homes and run to the shelter. A few minutes afterwards, the security siren starts blaring, and that’s when panic sets in,” he said.

Countries move to evacuate citizens

The situation in the Middle East has prompted governments around the world to evacuate their nationals from both Iran and Israel, where airspace closures and missile fire have made civilian travel dangerous or impossible.

No fewer than 12 countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Greece, and Bulgaria, have contacted their citizens in the warring nations and repatriated hundreds by air, sea, and road.

Many evacuees crossed land borders on foot before boarding repatriation flights from neighbouring countries.

Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday that the Czech Republic and Slovakia flew home 181 people on government planes, while Greece returned home 105 of its citizens plus a number of foreign nationals via Egypt.

The United States announced plans on Wednesday to evacuate Americans by air and sea, while China evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and several hundred more from Israel.

The Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement issued on Tuesday night, revealed that the Nigerian Embassies in Israel and Tehran (Iran) were actively reaching out to affected citizens and coordinating efforts to ensure their safe return.

However, as of Thursday night, the Federal Government had yet to evacuate any Nigerian trapped in the countries.

A woman, identified as Hope Omobeauty, during Solomon’s Vlog podcast, said some of her people had been trying to leave Israel but had found no way.

“I have people in Israel who are trying to leave, but there is no way,” she said.

Collapse of businesses

The Israeli government has shut down all activities until at least Sunday at 8pm, further worsening conditions for Nigerians in the country.

Israel announced that all educational institutions, including kindergartens, daycare centres, schools, special education programmes, summer camps, youth organisations, and higher education facilities, had been closed.

Speaking about this, the engineer told The PUNCH that the closures had negatively affected the livelihoods of Nigerians.

He lamented the “indifference and insensitivity” of the Nigerian embassy to their predicament.

“In Israel, rent is paid every month. At workplaces, you’re paid per hour. But all business activities have been shut down, so there is no income for anyone at the moment. We are scared because we don’t even know how we will pay our next rent or feed our children,” he said.

“There is an announcement that everything will reopen on Sunday, schools, markets, and places of worship, but it is not guaranteed. It all depends on how Iran continues the war, whether they will carry on with the bombardment or not. We don’t sleep at night because that’s when the missiles fall.

“What the officials at the Nigerian embassy do is perform their formal obligations, grant visas and handle diplomatic or travel assignments. They don’t engage in the welfare of Nigerians. If anything happens, you are on your own. They don’t do anything to help Nigerian citizens here.”

FG awaits border clearance

Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 Nigerians stranded in Iran have remained in limbo, as the Federal Government awaits final border clearance from Armenia to begin their evacuation.

According to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, the Nigerian Embassy in Tehran has completed logistical arrangements to move citizens to Armenia, the nearest border country, where they are to be airlifted home from the capital, Yerevan.

He told The PUNCH that embassy officials were in close talks with Armenian authorities to finalise the movement of evacuees across the Iran-Armenia border.

While bus transport has been secured, approval from Armenia to allow Nigerians to cross the border is still pending.

“The Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy met officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Armenia, which is the nearest border, to discuss modalities of moving stranded Nigerians via buses to Yerevan, while waiting to be airlifted to Nigeria.

“The Embassy has also advised Nigerians to stay away from demonstrations, remain in safe areas, and stay glued to their phones for evacuation messages once arrangements are concluded.

“At the moment, the Embassy has concluded arrangements with bus companies to hire buses that will convey us all to the transit country, Yerevan, Armenia. However, we are awaiting permission from the transit country before moving from locations already earmarked for evacuation,” Ebienfa said.

He said to prevent complications at the crossing, the embassy was coordinating with Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs by submitting updated lists of evacuees, including personal details.

“This is to ensure a smooth passage through the border and avoid any bottlenecks.

“All hands are on deck to get permission, including for transit and final airlifting to Abuja from Yerevan, Armenia,” he stated.

Headline

Egypt, South Africa Universities Beat Nigeria At Global QS Rankings

Published

5 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

For the third year in a row, no Nigerian university has made it into the top 1,000 of the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, with the 2026 edition released on June 19, 2025, once again excluding all 297 Nigerian universities from the global elite list.

Only three Nigerian institutions were ranked at all, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

UI and UNILAG were ranked in the 1,001–1,200 band for both the 2025 and 2026 editions, while ABU appeared for the first time in the 1,201–1,400 range.

The QS World University Rankings are compiled annually by Quacquarelli Symonds and assess institutions based on eight key performance indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, international research network, employment outcomes, and sustainability.

Despite longstanding reputations and a high number of graduates annually, Nigerian universities continue to underperform in areas such as research output, international collaboration, and employability metrics, factors that heavily influence global rankings.

Across Africa, Egypt led the continent with 20 universities on the 2026 list, followed by South Africa with 11, and Tunisia with four.

Ghana and Morocco each had two universities listed, while Kenya, Libya, Sudan, Uganda, and Ethiopia had one each.

Notably, the only African universities to break into the top 300 are from South Africa with University of Cape Town ranking 150th and University of Witwatersrand ranking 291st

QS World University Rankings 2026: Global Top 10

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – United States
2. Imperial College London – United Kingdom
3. Stanford University – United States
4. University of Oxford – United Kingdom
5. Harvard University – United States
6. University of Cambridge – United Kingdom
7. ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Switzerland
8. National University of Singapore – Singapore
9. University College London – United Kingdom
10. California Institute of Technology – United States

These institutions not only lead in research output and faculty reputation but also boast substantial international partnerships and high graduate employability scores.

Headline

Iran Nabs 22 Suspected Israeli Spies Amidst Escalating Conflict

Published

5 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

Police in Iran’s Qom province said Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported.

“22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency said, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.

It came after Iranian police announced the arrest on Thursday of 24 people accused of spying for Israel and of seeking to tarnish the country’s image, according to a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.

A European national was also arrested for spying, Tasnim reported on Friday, without giving their nationality or the date of the arrest.

Anambra CP seeks community cooperation to nab Oko attack hoodlums
Iran regularly announces arrests of suspected spies. Several have been executed in recent weeks.

Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said at least 223 people have been arrested nationwide on charges related to collaboration with Israel, cautioning that the actual figure was likely higher.

AFP