There was power outage on Monday while Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, briefed the senate committee on power on the rationale behind the federal government’s recent hike in electricity tariff.
On April 3, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission
(NERC) approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A
classification.
The commission said customers under the classification, who
receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, will now pay N225 per kilowatt
(kW), starting from April 3 — up from N66.
The development elicited outrage from citizens who asked the
national assembly to pull the plug on the hike.
Addressing the legislators, Adelabu said the nation would
have been thrown into darkness if the federal government did not increase the
electricity tariff.
“The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the
tariff,” the minister had said.
“With what we have now in the next three months, the entire
country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariff.
“The increment will
catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians, we are also feeling the
impact.”
Adelabu was still fielding questions from senators at the
investigative hearing when power went off in the room.
Enyinnaya Abaribe, chairman of the senate committee on
power, pointed to the incident as a reminder of why fixing the energy sector
has become imperative.
“You see what just happened. This is what we all experience.
We the senators experience it too and I am sure even the president does
experience it at the villa, just that he cannot speak out like we are,” Abaribe
said.
Power was restored after five minutes and the hearing with
the minister continued.
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