I’m committed to 24-hour electricity supply in Nigeria —Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu on Friday, reiterated his commitment to seeing Nigerians enjoy 24-hours electricity supply which was part of his campaign promises.

The President who spoke through Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, at the first Annual Socio-Economic Summit organised by Jericho Business Club, Ibadan, Oyo State, said his strategies to effectively address recurring challenges in the power sector are still on course.

He lamented that attempts by past governments to solve the ‘hydra-headed monster’ bedevilling the power sector had been grossly ineffective because the measures and plans had rendered their policies useless.

“My agenda to provide 24 hours electricity for Nigerians is still on course and intact. Our people have suffered so much in terms of energy poverty,” the president said.

“Our mandate is to ensure that we do what we are supposed to do for steady and effective electricity supply. The problems with the power sector are numerous.

“The generating sector has its own problem, the Electricity Distribution Companies have their own challenges and the consumers are also facing problems, I mean the households.

“What we have done is to identify these challenges and map out strategies for enduring and workable solutions. For example, with the customers, we have a huge metre gap because a lot of households and businesses have no metre.

“Without metre, you cannot bill, sustain and collect revenues. We are trying to reduce the metre gap to ensure that every household or business has a metre.

“We are also working on stronger and effective legislation to ensure that all theft and vandalisation of power assets by anybody becomes a thing of the past.

“When you destroy the transmission lines and power cables, you will quickly face the wrath of laws. We want to fast track trials of power thieves and vandals to urgently serve as deterrent to others criminals.

“Arrangements have been concretised to explore a bottom-up, workable plan capable of giving Nigerians and the economic industry a regular and affordable supply of electricity.

“We should be conscious of the fact that if we destroy or vandalise power assets, we are not hurting the government, but hurting ourselves. That is one of the reasons why we don’t have regular supply of electricity.”

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