The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has described the increased electricity tariffs as “a painful pill,” appealing to consumers to “swallow” it.

Fashola stated this on the sidelines of the second monthly sectoral meeting with stakeholders in the power sector in Lagos, where he also inspected some projects at the Alagbon Transmission and Distribution Complex on Monday.

He said, “Importantly, I understand that people who have been disappointed over a long time will feel a sense of concern that again tariffs have gone up. But the truth is that these tariffs ought to have been there from day one. I don’t know why the government of yesterday was not courageous enough to tell us this was the price.

“It is a painful pill that I must appeal that we swallow. It is like quinine and malaria. It’s painful; it’s not sweet, I know that, but I do it because we are not left with many choices. This is the first major decision in power that this administration has taken. There are other problems.

“I can only appeal for some understanding and some trust that we do this in the best interest of our country. It is a hard decision, but I think down the line, we will have cause to look…”

Fashola’s comments comes amid the ongoing nationwide protest by workers under the aegis of the Nigerian Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, which has grounded commercial activities in several cities in the country.

The minister, who faulted the way the privatisation of the power sector was carried out, said the sector was being plagued by several problems including gas supply shortfall and transmission issue.

The President Goodluck Jonathan administration had in November 2013 privatised the successor generation and distribution companies carved out of the defunct government-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria, leaving out the transmission segment of the value chain.

When asked what the problems in the sector were, the minister said, “The problem is everywhere. The problem is with us. The problem is with gas. The problem is with transmission. The problem is with the way the privatisation exercise itself was conducted.

“But as I have said before, I am not going to lament what has happened in the past. I am going to move on with it. So, the first move we have made when we accessed the situation, nobody was happy with it when we took over.

“This is a problem that has been here for 16 years, if we put it mildly. It is a problem that has been here 100 years ago, if we put it really extremely. I have been here for less than a 100 days, and I think we can solve this problem if you give us the tools that we need to do it. I think that this problem can be solved, and the day that we feel that it cannot be solved, I will gladly come and tell you that I don’t think it will work.”

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It is very difficult for Nigerians to trust any government at this stage. We've heard lot of failed promises. fixed it first and increase the tariff later.
Fashola and Tax are inseparable.

Fashola is a criminal


Because he has interest in Eko Electricity DISCO



Fraudsters

have said times without number that this apc led govt is full of deceit, even fashola blood don dey infected with apc virus.

Olamipapa:
.

I'm actually FTC because . is not a comment

Only in Nigeria will you see people leaving light bulbs running all day.
Monkey dey pay , baboon dey use.
Illegal connections all over the place.
Until people start taking their civic responsibilities seriously, the country will remain a shithole .
When people start treating neighbours who are openly stealing electricity via illegal connections as criminals, and reporting them, thing will start looking up.

On the government side, may we never see a president like Jonathan ever again

scribble:


I'm actually FTC because . is not a comment

You don vex bah? If you want the FTC you can come and collect it. funny dude

Olamipapa:


You don vex bah? If you want the FTC you can come and collect it. funny dude

Yes I want it. Mods do the needful

I don't trust politicians

They remove fixed charge and increase tariFf. Chai