Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has attributed the lack of public outcry over the recent surge in petrol prices to the reduced reliance on generators for electricity.
Speaking at the 2024 Nigeria Energy Exhibition and Conference in Lagos, themed “Breaking Barriers in the New Energy Era: Clean, Reliable and Sustainable,” the minister suggested that improved power supply has lessened the need for petrol-powered generators, as reported by ThisDay.
Petrol prices skyrocketed last week, hitting N998 and N1,030 per litre, following the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) termination of its sole off-taker arrangement with Dangote Refinery.
This led to sharp increases in transportation, food costs, and household items.
However, during his keynote address, Adelabu noted that Nigerians have been relatively quiet about the price hikes.
“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,” he said.
Adelabu also revealed that the federal government plans to replace generators across the country, in line with the Lagos State Policy to replace 1 million generators within a year.
“We must replace all the generators,” he affirmed.
Reflecting on the slow growth of Nigeria’s power generation, the minister lamented, “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 concluded.
