Should the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) go ahead to jerk up electricity tariff as being suggested, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened industrial resistance toward the action.
The NLC, in a statement released late, on Tuesday night, and signed by its President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, said the Federal Government should reverse the increase immediately or face an “unprecedented industrial resistance by Nigerian workers.”
They condemned the action of the Federal Government noting that the new increase will affect manufactures and producers of “Made-in-Nigeria” goods and services who will find it greatly difficult to cope.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that this tariff hike would sound the death knell for many manufacturing outfits in Nigeria as many of them would resort to either mass lay-off of workers and or direct importation of finished goods.
“In light of the heightened burden that this hike in electricity tariff imposes on Nigerian workers and people, we urge the Federal Government to quickly withdraw this uncanny New Year Gift or face an unprecedented industrial resistance by Nigerian workers,” Wabba said in the statement.
The increase in electricity tariff was announced on Wednesday following an adjustment of tariff by the NERC.
The approval was given in a Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) signed by the new NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, and obtained by Channels Television on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today denied the increase. He noted that what was done was to adjust certain bands and to ensure that certain persons who are supposed to be on some bands are not wrongly put on some other bands.
