Daily Independent (Lagos)
7 January 2009
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a civil society group, the has criticised the plan by the Presidency, Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as the National Assembly to spend over N2b to the provision of electricity during eth year.
Details of the plan are contained in the Federal Government budget that was passed by the Senate on December 17, 2008.
But, SERAP in a statement yesterday said the plan portrays the government "as insensitive, unserious and unwilling to tackle the deplorable and unreliable electricity services in the country, despite making the reactivation of the power sector one of the key element of its 7-point agenda."
The Presidency has budgeted an expenditure of over N27 million to fuel its generators, while another N14.3 million will go into the maintenance of the generators.
Similarly, the National Assembly will spend about N233 million for fuel, while offices and administrative buildings will gulp N63 million for the same purpose; maintenance, N57.2 million; the National Assembly White House, which houses the Chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives (N58 million for fuelling and N55 million for maintenance); the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) (fuel and maintenance, N25.8 million); and Police formations nationwide (fuel and maintenance, N110 million).
SERAP's signed by Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, pointed out that "The government's plan to spend N2billion on generators at a time millions of Nigerians are without access to regular electricity supply, and some are dying from the effect of the use of generators, has shown that the government is not genuinely committed to, and in fact, has given up on its oft-expressed commitment to address the persistent problem of unreliable electricity supply in the country."
"Spending so much money to supply generating sets to government offices, while millions of Nigerians remain without access to regular electricity is discriminatory and amounts to abdication of responsibility.
"The government's action also amounts to a violation of Nigeria's international human rights obligations, including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," the organization argued.
The organization noted that "Government's persistent failure to genuinely address the problem is contributing to the deprivation of access to quality healthcare, adequate food, shelter, clothing, water, sanitation, medical care, schooling, and access to information for millions of Nigerians. The lack of access to modern energy/electricity services is particularly detrimental to millions of Nigerian women and children."
According SERAP, "Without access to improved supply of electricity services, Nigeria cannot achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and ensuring environmental sustainability.
"Access to uninterrupted supply of electricity is a basic human right, which is necessary for the enjoyment of other human rights such as healthcare, adequate housing and quality education. Electricity offers neat, flexible and variety in usage to the end -use services that drives economic development and improves the quality of life."
"Instead of spending huge money on generators, the government should come up with a serious action plan with benchmarks, which will be faithfully and fully implemented to ensure access of millions of Nigerians to regular electricity services on the basis of equality and non-discrimination," the organisation added.
The organization called on "The Yar'Adua government to demonstrate its oft-expressed commitment to tackle the problem by seriously considering banning the use of generators in government offices, as a first step to banning the use, sale, rental, repair and importation of generators into the country. This will make the government to sit up and confront the problem genuinely and comprehensively."
The organization also asked the government to "re-allocate the #2b budget on generators to ensure improved electricity infrastructure generation, transmission and distribution throughout the country. In case the government fails or neglects to urgently do this, our organization will have no options but to institute appropriate legal actions to ensure full compliance by the government with Nigeria's international human rights obligations and commitments."
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