A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Mr. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has said the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the stoppage of the implementation of the hike of electricity tariff is commendable.
Oyintiloye, speaking with reporters in Osogbo, said the directive was a true reflection that the president was sensitive to the plight of the masses.
It will be recalled that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on November 8 disclosed that President Tinubu recently stopped the implementation of a hike in electricity tariff and insisted that subsidy be paid on power consumed nationwide.
Oyintiloye, a member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said removing electricity subsidy, while Nigerians were still battling with effects of fuel subsidy removal, would have been counter-productive.
He said the president’s decision on the electricity hike showed that he was in constant touch with the feelings and aspirations of Nigerians.
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The APC chieftain said that in the quarterly report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Federal Government’s subsidy in the power sector hit N135.2 billion in the second quarter of 2023, from the N36 billion it paid in the first quarter.
He said the NERC reports also revealed that the N135.2 billion recorded in the second quarter of 2023 was an increase of N99.21 billion or 275 per cent compared to the previous quarter of N36 billion.
Oyintiloye noted that the NERC report showed that government is still subsiding electricity for the masses.
He said removing the electricity subsidy which government was still paying to fill the gap between the reflective tariff cost and allowed tariff cost would have been another burden on the masses.