A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka, has called on President Bola Tinubu, to as a matter of urgency, sack the Minister of Power, Mr Bayo Adelabu, saying; “there is no point keeping a minister who has failed to give even the Presidential Villa adequate power supply.”

Olayinka, who said the country needed someone with ingenuity and capability to turn things around in the power sector, added that “it is embarrassingly shameful that under the current Minister of Power, Nigerians are now seeing power supply as better under the inept government of Buhari.”

He said Tinubu's government will be saving itself from further embarrassment by sacking Adelabu and replacing him with a professional whose interest will not only be to make Nigerians pay for darkness, but to ensure constant power supply.

Olayinka, an aide of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose and PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 2 in the last year’s general elections, insisted that; “a critical sector like power cannot be left in the hands of someone who has demonstrated lack of capacity to do anything apart from increasing electricity tariff. Someone whose only idea of generating revenue as Oyo State Governor was to ban vehicles with registration numbers from other States from playing roads in Oyo State should have nothing to do with a sector as critical as power.

“Apart from his fixation with hike in electricity tariff, what has he contributed to the power sector in the last ten months? Simply nothing!”

He said the categorisation of some areas in Nigeria as Band A with 20 hours power supply per day was a fraud, saying “under Minister Bayo Adelabu, even Aso Rock Presidential Villa does not enjoy 20 hours power supply daily.”

On the tariff hike, Olayinka accused Adelabu of misleading the federal government, saying; “Even most upscale estates in Nigeria that are using generator do not charge up to N200/Kwh. Why should grid power be more expensive than power produced from diesel generators?

“Only a deceitful and shylock-minded person will increase cost of power that is not available and constant. More insulting is even the Minister’s insensitive comment in a now-viral video, that Nigerians leave their freezers on while going out to work because they pay little for electricity.

“With this new tariff, N10,000 recharge that was 136 units is now 41 units. Meaning power that was purchased for N10,000 will now be more than N30,000! Haba! Isn’t this too outrageous with the present level of hardship Nigerians are already going through?

More worrisome is the claim that users in areas categorized as Band A are having between 20- and 24-hours power supply per day. This is a lie and the Power Minister must be held liable for deceiving the federal government into inflicting hardship on Nigerians.

“For instance, I live in one of the areas categorized as Band A in Abuja. Yesterday alone, light went off more than five times. There was power outage from 6pm yesterday till about 10am today, which is more than 16 hours. Today, at about 11am, the light went off and was restored about 30 minutes later. It went off again at about 1pm and was restored about 20 minutes later. Only God knows how many times power outage will still be experienced today.

“Average power outage between yesterday and today can be said to about 20 hours. If 20 hours is deducted from 48 hours, it will be 28 hours. So how is 28 hours power supply in two days equal to 20 hours per day?”

While reiterating that Nigerians will always pay bills for services rendered effectively, Olayinka said the concern of the government should be how to make electricity supply effective, not making money from the supply of darkness by the DisCos.

“In those days, NITEL officials used to run after Nigerians to pay their bills. Who runs after Nigerians to buy airtime and do data subscription now? That is the level the power sector should also be taking to and as it is, this Bayo Adelabu does not have the required zeal to achieve this.”

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