The group led by Prince Zaid Rilwan Ojora Akiolu wanted government to make prepaid meters available to all and sundry with adequate value for money paid on power supply. The press conference that came up on Saturday at Gaskiya in Badia, Ijora was well attended by people from different parts of Lagos.
In his press release that reads in part, Akiolu said, ‘We represent the great people of Nigeria. We are calling this press conference to enable Nigerians and the incumbent government of General Muhammad Buhari to know the plight of Nigerians about their decision making as regards their nonchalant attitudes of their government toward the yearning of its citizens as regards to energy increment in tariffs of the DISCOS alongside the hike in FUEL PRICE without proper consultation with the general public of Nigeria.
‘It is quite unfortunate that this government came into existence at an untimely economic disaster, inherited from the past government when there were excess of funds and an enabling vibrant economy to develop our Nation, both in gas and energy with infrastructures to develop this nation were grossly mismanaged and thrown to the blues living the nation in jeopardy and at the mercy of Almighty God. Due to the aforementioned reasons, on behalf of all the Nigerians, we wish to declare the followings as remedy for solution to these problems:
“The government declared and announced in public sometime this year that there would not be any sudden increase in power supply tariffs until 2021; we are now surprise to see the same government saying that they are increasing the tariffs for power sector. The National Assembly and the Lower House (House of Representatives) have declared that estimated billing is a crime against the nation and are hereby abolished, but up till now, the DISCOS are still giving us Nigerians the estimated billing. We hereby reject and condemn the increase in tariffs without a proper metering system throughout the nation for free because those who have obtained it for free are not better than the commoners of this nation; and if not for free, it should be for a lower price since the government has waived for them the custom duties for meter.
“President
Muhammad Buhari and his administration alongside Nigerian Electrical Regulatory
Commission (NERC) have come
up with different rules and laws in guiding the DISCOS in protecting the citizens
of Nigeria who are the end users or consumers of energy from being exploited,
but to our surprise, the DISCOS do not comply to such rules of engagement to
the public and their customers. The question now is, what has the government
done to penalize them for extorting the public illegally? We are not against
the government and the NERC increasing the energy tariffs because of the economic
retention in the world
at large, but before such increment, we insist and demand that every houses or
companies and customers who are the end users of the energy be duly metered
before the increment of tariffs.
“We also
wish to state categorically that the presidency and the other arms of
government should take the bull by the horn and stop mesmerizing because the
DISCOS are stating that they and the government are in paripassu therefore, neither
law nor legal steps can be meted out to them by any arms of government in which
they have turned our government to be a toothless bull-dog.
‘Mr. President (Muhammad Buhari), we wish you to order the I.G. (Inspector General of Police) to arrest and apprehend any DISCOS that fails to abide by the laws and rules of their engagement, emitted out to them by the National Assembly, House of Representatives and the Nigeria electricity regulatory commission (NERC) as a guideline of their operations and engagement with the public. They should not be allowed to prove that they are untouchable nor above the law in order to give Nigerian citizens peace of mind and values for whatever increment in tariffs when the government is duly policing the DISCOS. The DISCOS and MAP are to be given a mandatory time frame to Meter all their customers throughout the nation. Failure to do so, their licences should be revoked and terminated; and the energy companies should be given to other viable and competent companies that have international reputation on the job.
'The sudden increment of fuel price and the removal of subsidy from fuel are unfortunate but a necessity and the duty of any good governance. The past administrations since the inception of the second republic were so fortunate that the oil boom were luckily in their tenure, but all the infrastructures of the nation and the agriculture, energy and gas, education etc were not adequately attended to, as these have escalated our problems of the nation in general. The Obasanjo government, the Yar’adua government and the Jonathan government failed to use the opportunity of the oil boom to adequately put in place the needful mechanism of this nation on the right footing; rather they were all busy embezzling our resources. We know that your administration inherited a bad economy leaving us to borrow money in order to sustain and maintain our nation in general.
‘President
Buhari, the nation has looked up to your administration for better governance
of transparency, security and the total transformation of our nation’s economy;
it is quite unfortunate that till now, the economy and the security are not yet
stable. Mr President, every drastic problem needs a drastic solution. Your leniency
and tolerance toward the elites and the money bags, the so called Big-short are
monopolizing and hampering the sustainability of your administration,
especially in security and economically. We have heard in the past of their declaration that
you will not be able to manage and sustain the security and the economy of this
nation. We are hereby not surprise at the current position of the nation
economically and security wise.
“
Add caption
The
need for removal of subsidy from our fuel by the government is a welcome idea
once and for all. Your administration is not the first and hopefully shall be
the last on the removal of subsidy from fuel price. Obasanjo’s administration,
Yar’adua’s administration and Jonathan’s administration in the past have always
been the advocates of removal of subsidy
but to no avail instead, they were diverting the subsidy’s fund to their
respective private pocket thereby, enriching themselves at the detriment of the
nation. But if your administration is now willingly and adequately prepared to
remove fuel subsidy permanently in order for us to determine the actual cost of
landing of fuel into Nigeria, shall be a determining factor by the
international market for crude oil and fuel price.
Therefore, if only the nation shall benefit from whatever left from the fund removed from subsidizing our fuel are duly utilized in other National Developmental Sector, if not diverted to private pocket as being done by the past administration. We expect you to be transparent in such actions and duly educating the public and carrying us along step by step as regards the fuel increment. We also expect you to subsidies our transportation in all ramifications and creating a task force that will determine the price of transportation from one point to the other on the fuel increment without hampering the movement and cost of the transportation to the populace.
“In addition, the government should also look into the Local Government development areas construction of the roads to include the laying of pipe bone water so as to remove the economic hardship the public are incurring in purchasing water on a daily basis. Averagely, each family spend on daily basis #10,000-15,000 in purchasing water per month. So, if the government adequately provide them water, such money shall be used in enhancing their respective families’ financial potentialities.
“We
hereby, submit ourselves and other coalition organisations as a watchdog to the
government and the public in actualizing all our expectations and demands from
the government. Mr.
President (Muhammad Buhari), we wish to remind you that we are in a democratic
setting and not an autocratic government which is government of the people, by
the people and for the people. It is our democratic right to demonstrate, to
illustrate and to protest for any wrongs or mistakes the government are making
in their decision against the nation therefore, the law enforcement agency has
no right to disband, arrest or to detain such legal action of democratic right
in peaceful protests. Sir, for peace to reign, we demand that you should order
all the law enforcement agencies to immediately release all detainees for such
democratic demonstration without further delay in order for this nation to move
forward.
“Mr President and his cabinet, the senate president, the National Assembly and its members, the Speaker and Leader of House of Representatives and their respective members should know and believe that they are automatically directly or indirectly members of Landlords and Tenants Association of Nigeria Vis-Ã -vis their position and status because one way or the other, they are all Landlords and Tenants in Abuja and throughout Nigeria. They should all feel concerned to whatever the Landlords and Tenants are standing for and we expect them to cooperate in the yearning of the public in achieving our collective goals.'
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