Nigerian power consumers have been given the option of paying the newly introduced electricity tariff or be faced with prolonged blackouts.
Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu who was speaking during a Senate session on Monday stated that the country will be in total blackout in the next three months if the price hike fails to take off.
“The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff. With what we have now in the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariffs.
“The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians, we are also feeling the impact.”
According to him, the sum of $10 billion is needed yearly for the next ten years to revive the nation’s power sector and nip in the bud the challenges bedeviling it.
“For this sector to be revived, the government needs to spend nothing less than 10 billion dollars annually in the next 10 years.
“This is because of the infrastructure requirement for the stability of the sector. But the government cannot afford that. And so we must make this sector attractive to investors and to lenders.
“So, for us to attract investors and investment, we must make the sector attractive, and the only way it can be made attractive is that there must be commercial pricing.
“If the value is still at N66 and the government is not paying subsidy, the investors will not come. But now that we have increased the tariff for A Band, there are interests being shown by investors,” he said.
Meanwhile Human Rights advocate and frontline Nigeria lawyer Femi Falana SAN said despite the hike in tariff Nigerians are not enjoying improved power supply.
“The increase was anchored on the directives of the commission that customers in Band A will have an uninterrupted electricity supply for at least 20 hours a day. That directive has been violated daily. So, on what basis can you justify the increase in the electricity tariffs?”
He argued that the increase did not follow due process.
“Section 116 of the Electricity Act 2023 provides that before an increase can be approved and announced, there has to be a public hearing conducted based on the request of the Discos to have an increase in the electricity tariffs. That was not done.
“Secondly, neither the minister nor the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission has explained why the impunity that characterised the increase can be allowed.”
“I have already given a notice to the commission because these guys are running Nigeria based on impunity and we can not continue like this. Where a country claims to operate under the rule of law, all actions of the government, and all actions of individuals must comply with the provisions of relevant laws.
