Telcos tariff hike triumphs over legislation- The House speaks, but who listens?

In what already feels like a well-rehearsed routine, the House of Representatives recently passed a resolution asking the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to halt the proposed 50% tariff hike by telecom operators, but that did not yield the expected impact.

Lawmakers, raising concerns about affordability in an already strained economy, made their objections loud and clear. Yet, just as quickly as the ink dried on that resolution, the telcos went ahead and implemented the increase anyway, without hesitation.

For many Nigerians, this is hardly surprising. The House of Representatives has developed a long list of resolutions that seem to make bold headlines for a day or two before fading into oblivion. From fuel price controls to security directives, the pattern is all too familiar.

This raises a crucial question: why do Representatives’ resolutions regularly fail on impact, do legislators even care to match their words with action or are they simply political posturing—grand declarations made for the record but without real intentions? Does the executive pay attention or take them seriously?

The answer can be found in a comment made by Kingsley Chinda, the House minority leader, during one of the House plenary sessions. “Unless the House matches its resolutions with actions, the faith that the citizens have in the house will wane,” he said.

Chinda made this comment while raising concerns over the House’s long list of security resolutions without any tangible results. The Minority leader, and 28 other lawmakers also lamented that the Executive was ignoring its resolutions.

There is hardly a session of the lower legislative chamber where members do not raise motions and reach several resolutions in its bid to address various topical issues in the country, most of which burdens citizens.

Nigerians often bear the consequences of this inaction. For the average citizen, the pressing concern isn’t the politics behind the resolution —it’s the simple fact that calls and data just got more expensive, further driving up cost of living.

A similar scenario played out when the House asked the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to stop the implementation of its proposed electricity tariff hike. The commission had increased the tariff paid by Band A customers from N68/KWh to N225/kWh, which sparked public outrage.

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Addressing the concerns, the Green Chamber ordered NERC and DisCos to revert to the old tariff, but the Commission proceeded with implementing the hike. Usman Arabi, Spokesperson for NERC later disclosed that the commission did not receive any official communication from the Representatives on the directive.

The House had also resolved to appoint a well-regarded former regulator as a technical consultant to work with its special committee to draft a bill to provide for administrative procedures that entrench proper consultation and legislative review of process for tariff setting in the electricity and other public services in Nigeria, but that is yet to materialise.
This pattern was evident in the 9th Assembly. Ahmed Wase, then deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, lamented that the Executive arm of the Federal Government does not recognise and implement resolutions passed by the parliament.

He was contributing to a debate on a motion of urgent public importance moved by Solomon Maren from Plateau State on the recent kidnapping of some traditional rulers from his constituency.

The lawmaker lamented that he had presented three motions so far on the floor on security matters and the House has also taken very fast resolutions as to what it would take to resolve the matter, none of which translated into any action.

“I am sincerely pained that after the resolutions of the House urging these peace agencies to put out formation in some of these areas so that we will be able to stop these unpleasant situations, till this moment nothing has happened.

“It shows that the resolutions of the House is not taking any effect on all these unpleasant killings and kidnappings. If the resolutions of the House had been taken seriously, by now all these would have stopped,” he had said.

The hard truth is that Nigerians continue to bear the burden, unless lawmakers begin to match their words with action, and demand more attention to their resolutions, which if implemented could make a difference in the life of ordinary Nigerians.

But for now, citizens are left with the same old reality, living in a country where government resolutions may make noise but don’t make a difference.