Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has warned that there would be a nationwide power outage for three months if the proposed increase in electricity tariffs is not implemented.

The Minister who gave the warning when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Power during an investigative hearing over the recent electricity tariff hike by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said the power sector will be grounded without the increase in the tariff.

“The entire Power 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,” Adelabu told the Committee.

“The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians, we are also feeling the impact.”

During his presentation, the Minister noted that the amount the federal government needs to revamp the sector was enormous and the government would not be able to provide the needed funds.

“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.

“With what we have now in the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariffs,” the Minister reiterated.

Nigerian human rights lawyer and advocate, Femi Falana, has accused the President Bola Tinubu government of acting out a script written by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the recent increase in electricity tariffs in the country.

Falana who made the assertion in an interview on a national television programme on Monday, alleged that the decision of the government to increase the electricity tariffs despite the hardship Nigerians are currently going through, was a “direct result of pandering to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”

The fiery lawyer also asserted that by that decision, the government was merely executing a policy imposed by the Bretton Wood institutions, while prioritizing their interests above those of the Nigerian people.

He further argued that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, is effectively carrying out the script of the IMF and World Bank which have consistently pushed for the removal of all subsidies, including fuel and electricity, as a condition for their support.

“The Honourable Minister of Power is acting the script of the IMF and the World Bank,” Falana said.

“Those two agencies insisted and they continue to insist that the government of Nigeria must remove all subsidies. Fuel subsidy, electricity subsidy and what have you; all social services must be commercialised and priced beyond the reach of the majority of Nigerians.

“So, the government cannot afford to protect the interest of Nigerians where you are implementing the neoliberal policies of the Bretton Wood institutions,” he opined.

The human rights lawyer stated that the government’s capitulation to these international financial institutions has resulted in the implementation of policies that are detrimental to the majority of Nigerians, who are already struggling to make ends meet.

“By pricing essential services like electricity beyond the reach of the average citizen, the government is effectively abandoning its responsibility to protect the interests of its people,” Falana said.