Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has noted that many Nigerians have stopped voicing concerns about the high cost of petrol because they no longer rely exclusively on generators for electricity.
Speaking in Lagos during his keynote address at the ongoing 2024 Nigeria Energy Exhibition and Conference, themed “Breaking Barriers in the New Energy Era: Clean, Reliable and Sustainable,” Adelabu highlighted this shift in public sentiment.
Last week, petrol prices surged to N998 and N1,030 per litre after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) ended its sole off-taker arrangement with the Dangote Refinery.
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This increase has led to a rise in transportation costs and the prices of essential goods.
However, at the conference, Adelabu pointed out that people are not protesting as loudly about the price hikes since they no longer need to spend N1,000 on petrol to power their generators for electricity.
He also mentioned the federal government’s plan to replace all generators in the country, aligning with Lagos State’s initiative to replace one million generators within a year.
He said: “People don’t need to buy petrol again as much as they used to do for them to have power. That’s why the noise is even at this level. If they had to be going to the filling stations to buy N1000 per litre of petrol to generate electricity, we would have even had louder noise from the public.
“So, what we intend to do is to make sure that all the generators are replaced in line with Lagos State Policy of Replacement of 1 Million Generators in One Year. I saw that. We must replace all the generators.”
While reflecting on Nigeria’s power generation, the minister lamented the slow growth, saying: “It took us almost 40 years to generate additional 2000MW from the 2000MW milestone we achieved in 1984. Now, we have taken it to an average of 5000MW, with a peak of 5,527MW on the third of September. But we are not deterred. If the last best time was 50 years ago, I believe the next best time is today, and this must wake us up. So, it’s an issue I don’t like to remember”, he said.
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Adelabu must remember that he will come back home o to contest for Oyo State Governorship,so he should stopkeep saying this,abi awọn naa o lójú mọ ni?