The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has expressed deep displeasure over the recent remarks credited to the Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, revealing the federal government’s fresh plan to hike electricity tariffs in the country.
The students’ body said the repeated claim by the Minister that the government could not sustain subsidy on electricity, and because of that, must increase now and then the tariffs on the commodity, is a “clear demonstration of his incompetency in office.”
In a statement made available to Nigerian Tribune on Monday evening, NANS’ Senate President, Usman Adamu, stated that for the minister to repeatedly prescribe tariff increments as the sole remedy for inefficiencies in the power sector, especially at a time like this when majority of Nigerians are faced with economic hardship, exacerbated by inflation, stagnant wages, and erratic power supply “means he is not only insensitive to the plights of Nigerians but also incompetent in his role.”
The students’ body noted that “It is most unfortunate that a man entrusted with such a strategic national portfolio can reduce the complexities of our power woes to a monotonous refrain of “tariff increase.”
“To us, if only the minister’s strategy to improve power delivery is to periodically hike tariffs, then the minister service is a tragic emblem of administrative inertia and cognitive bankruptcy.
“Governance demands ingenuity and not perfunctory fiscal adjustments that do nothing to improve supply but everything to deepen the woes of citizens.
“So, it is particularly appalling that the minister has failed in his fundamental obligation of oversight.
“The Distribution Companies (DisCos), emboldened by weak regulation, have been robbing the Nigerian people blind with estimated billings, epileptic supply, and outright disregard for service-based obligations. “We know that under various bands-A, B, C and D- consumers are promised a minimum threshold of certain daily electricity supply, yet these benchmarks are consistently violated without consequence.
“The silence and inaction of the minister in the face of these daily infractions suggest either complicity or negligence.
“Consequently, we are constrained to ask the minister these following questions including “What precisely is his ministry doing to reform the electric distribution companies,” “What innovative blueprint does the ministry develop to stabilize and decentralize the national grid?” “What strategic interventions the ministry initiated to make renewable energy more accessible to many Nigerians?
“The answers to all these are none, except that the minister’s interest is to continue to increase tariffs without not bothering about the availability of the commodity or effectiveness of the system.
“So, we are calling on the minister to dismount from the throne of bureaucratic convenience and take concrete steps that can quarantee transparency, reliability, affordability and efficiency in the sector.
“The minister should understand that Nigeria does not need a tariff enthusiast in the Ministry of Power—but a reformer and performer.
“We, the student community, which constitute a critical mass of the country’s population, will not continue to watch the ministry of power adding to peoples’ economic hardships under any guise.
“We demand performance and innovations that will bring results and not recycled excuses.”
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