The 36 governors have objected to the Electricity Bill currently being considered by the Senate, which is due for discussion this week.
According to the governors under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), they said the Bill disrobed states of their constitutionally defined roles, as the Bill is injurious to the states with regards to generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in their domains.
The chairman of the NGF and Governor of Ekiti State, John Kayode Fayemi, has already written to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswam, expressing governors’ vehement objection to the proposed legislation.
The governors wondered why Senator Suswam had in an article argued that “The Electricity Bill 2022 is based on recommendations put together by a team of Consultants engaged by the Senate Committee on Power.”
Invariably, NGF said the Electricity Bill by the Senate Committee on Power is not a “true and fair” reflection of stakeholders in the Nigerian electricity sector, most particularly the State governments. It is also not a “true and fair reflection of the Federal executive arm.”
It argued that contrary to the views of the Suswam, Clause 2(2) of the Bill is rather injurious to the constitutional rights of States with regards to electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
The governors added that limiting the powers of State governments to build generation plants, transmission and distribution lines only in areas not covered by the national grid, shrinks the powers of States to make laws for electricity within their state jurisdictions.
NGF submitted the details of other aspects of the Electricity Bill, which according to it, not only violates the constitutional rights of States, but unconstitutionally donates powers to the National Assembly and the Federal Government with respect to the supervision and regulation of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution within States.
It, therefore, advised that it was important to engage the Federal House of Representatives on the respective Bills for the electricity sector, particularly the EPSRA Amendment Bill 2020 and other Bills, which also infringe on the constitutional rights of states to make laws for electricity, with a view to harmonising them into a single draft Electricity Bill.
