Sam Amadi

Funsho Balogun

Sam Amadi, the immediate past Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has pitted himself against the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC with his recent comment on the 45 per cent increase on electricity tariff. Amadi’s statement in an interview that the current tariff cannot be reviewed or suspended by anyone has led to a miffed NLC calling for a probe of his tenure as the NERC head.

Amadi’s position is that the NERC, as it is presently constituted, lacks the powers to reverse the increased tariff endorsed by the commission’s former board. He stated that for any fresh order on the tariff that emanates from NERC to be valid, it should come from a new Board, which is yet to be reconstituted.

The former NERC Chairman also declared that it was inappropriate for the Senate to give a directive stopping the tariff increase to the NERC. But the NLC is having none of it. In his response to Amadi’s statement, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President countered that the former NERC Chairman should know better, concerning the duties of the legislature as spelt out in the constitution. He maintained that the senate order was not in any way outside it’s purview, since the duties of the legislature as defined by the constitution includes legislation, oversight and investigation.

According to Wabba, the order given to NERC by the Senate is legal, and cannot rightly be termed a direct encroachment on the independence of the executive. ‘’Elementary knowledge of the social sciences tells us that independence of the three arms of government in a liberal democracy is a coordinate one,” Wabba noted. The stance of the NLC is that the directive of the Senate should be respected and promptly effected.