Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has knocked the Federal Government’s planned increase in electricity tariffs, insisting that Nigerians should not be made to bear the burden of years of policy failures and inefficiency in the country’s power sector.
Falana said the government must first fulfil its promise of providing stable and uninterrupted electricity before contemplating any further increase in tariffs.
Addressing journalists in Ilawe-Ekiti over the weekend, the senior lawyer argued that Nigerians deserve reliable electricity services rather than higher costs for poor power supply.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu had promised Nigerians uninterrupted electricity during his election campaign, stressing that such a commitment should take precedence over any proposal to increase electricity charges.
He criticised what he described as plans by the government to completely withdraw from its responsibilities in the electricity sector after privatizing the distribution companies.
Falana alleged that the owners of the electricity companies maintain close ties with those in government, arguing that such relationships should not be used to shield the companies from accountability.