Abuja: Stakeholders have called for greater accountability in the management of public water infrastructure, power, and waste management in Nigeria. The stakeholders, drawn from trade unions and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), made the call at the National Public Utilities Summit held on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the summit, themed ‘Promoting Transparency and Decent Work in Supply Chains in Electricity, Water, and Waste Services in Sub-Saharan Africa’, was organised by Public Services International (PSI) in collaboration with DGB Bildungswerk Bund (DGB BW). The event reviewed the impact of the PSI-DGB project on promoting decent work and addressing privatisation in the water, electricity, and waste sectors.
Mr Philip Jakpor, Executive Director of the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), stated that adopting Public-Public Partnerships (PuPs) would enhance the management of public utilities by promoting transparency, accountability, and quicker responses to public concerns. NAN also reports that RDI is among the CSO partners of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) and the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) under the PSI-DGB project.
Jakpor urged governments to suspend the privatisation of public utilities and focus on strengthening public water infrastructure through political commitment. He noted that some countries Nigeria was modelling from under its Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme were taking back their utilities from private companies due to corruption and compromised standards leading to water pollution. According to him, adopting PPPs to manage waterworks and power plants built with public money is not a guarantee of effective management.
Jakpor highlighted that the power sector was handed over to private companies, and 13 years later, the reasons for which the government sold these institutions are unfulfilled. He pointed out that despite the privatisation, there is no electricity, and Nigerians are still paying for it, with over 150 grid collapses since 2013. He added that private companies did not invest significantly to increase capacity from the existing 12,500 MW to the required 70,000-100,000 MW.
Similarly, Jaiye Gaskia, Director of the Centre for Transformative Governance (CTG), emphasized that the constitution mandates essential public services to be delivered by public institutions instead of being outsourced. Gaskia argued that private companies prioritize profit over service, necessitating a reversal of privatisation in the electricity sector.
In his remarks, Abiodun Bakare, PSI National Project Coordinator (Value Chains), advocated for the adoption of PuPs as a better approach to managing public utilities than privatisation, particularly in the electricity, water, and waste sectors. Bakare mentioned that the summit gathered experts, including public affairs analysts and trade union organisations, to explore alternatives to the privatisation of public utilities, with recommendations intended for government advocacy for Public-Public Partnerships (PuPs).
NAN reports that the meeting brought together trade unions and civil society organisations from Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda.