The federal government says it will go back to the drawing board with relevant stakeholders to address the issue of the electricity tariff hike.
Mamudah Mamman, permanent secretary at the federal ministry
of power, spoke in Abuja on Monday while addressing members of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC).
Members of organised labour were out to picket offices of
the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), ministry of power and
the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in Abuja over the tariff
hike.
The NERC on April 3 approved an increase in the electricity
tariff for elite customers.
Organised labour is calling for a reversal of the increase
and a return to the negotiating table.
Mamman said members of the national assembly have told the
ministry to do a wide consultation with relevant stakeholders on the matter.
The permanent secretary assured that the ministry would sit
down next week with the leadership of the NLC to see how the issues could be
resolved.
“The national
assembly had written the ministry to go and do a wide consultation with all the
relevant stakeholders,” he said.
“What the ministry does is give policy directions. We
realise that the policy direction given is pushing Nigerians to the corner, and
we need to do things differently.
“What we need to do is for all of us to come to the table,
look at it, and decide what is the best way. I don’t have the power to reverse
the tariff, so we will go back to the drawing board with the regulator and NLC.
“I’m going to take your message to the relevant authority,
and we will look at it and inform you.”
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