Nigerian Government Insists On Electricity Tariff Hike As Labour Threatens Showdown

The Federal Government on Sunday faulted the organised labour’s opposition to the electricity tariff hike and the removal of the subsidy in the sector.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Power, Florence Eke, who disclosed this in an interview with The Punch in Abuja, said the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu’s justification of the electricity tariff hike at the Senate public hearing on Monday last week was still valid.

She said the government was  “not toeing the path of trade unions’’ on the issue of electricity tariff.

According to her, the burden of the electricity subsidy was too much for the government to bear and it was not sustainable.

Eke stated this against the background of the two-week ultimatum issued by organised labour demanding the reversal of the increase in the electricity tariff.

But the Trade Union Congress on Sunday insisted on the two-week ultimatum it gave to the Federal Government to reverse the tariff.

Also, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, faulted the tariff hike.

According to him, the government cannot fix tariffs in a sector that is already deregulated.