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United Nation query FG over Poor electricity and tariff

Published

11 years ago

March 17, 2014

Two United Nations special rapporteurs have queried the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan “over the impact of the
Multi-Year Tariff Order II (MYTO II) and its potential
detrimental impact on the realisation of human rights of people living
in extreme poverty in Nigeria.”
The rapporteurs are: Ms. Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, Special
Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights and Ms.
Raquel Rolnik Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as a
Component of the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living, and on
the Right to Non-discrimination.
Their intervention followed a petition last year by a coalition of
human rights activists, labour, journalists and lawyers led by Socio-
Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP.
In the joint letter dated November 26, 2013, Ms. Carmona and Ms.
Rolnik asked the Nigerian government to explain why “there is no
functioning metering system in the country,” and expressed “grave
concerns that the absence of functioning metering system limits the
ability to accurately set prices for electricity and leaves electricity bills
vulnerable to mismanagement and arbitrary decisions,
disproportionately affecting people living in poverty.”
The two special rapporteurs also stated that “Certain groups already
vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion, including women heads of
households and persons living in informal settlements and in rural
areas, may be especially affected by the rise in tariffs under MYTO
II enacted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) on June 1, 2012.”
Last week SERAP received information from the offices of the
special rapporteurs that “the government has chosen not to respond or
engage with the concerns raised by them.”
How I wish FG will listen and do something……