Electricity hike: This cheating must stop – Senator Barau

Jibrin Barau, senator representing Kano South Senatorial District, has vowed that the Senate would stop at nothing to bring an end to the exorbitant charges by electricity companies in the country.

Barau told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja that the electricity companies had continued to charge consumers fixed prices on electricity consumption, in spite of irregular power supply.

He said that goods produced in the country had no competitive advantage in the international market because the high charges of electricity had led to high cost of production.

“The fact remains that people are not satisfied with the performance of the DISCOS and the whole power sector. People are not comfortable with the operation of that sector. I understand that one of the reasons why goods produced in this country are not competitive in the international market is because of the cost of production of the goods.

“So, it is something that has to be tackled, the rip-off is not acceptable and must stop,’’ he said.

The lawmaker decried what he described as a situation that had led Nigeria to become a dumping ground for substandard goods because they were cheaper.

“The reasons for this situation is the fact that the factors of production in respect of the goods produced in Nigeria are always very expensive, compared to products produced in any other part of the world.

“So, when any good is produced in Nigeria, it will have a competitive disadvantage compared to the goods produced in other parts of the world.

“Once you have that situation, those goods would not be marketable in the international market, and that is why Nigeria has become a dumping ground because cheaper goods are being brought into the country,” he said.

He regretted that while Nigerians were contending with the challenge of irregular power supply, the hike in tariff had further compounded the problem.