Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has faulted the planned hike in electricity tariff.

He said the Federal Government might be playing politics with the sector and called for the de-politicisation and increased investment in the sector.

Adebayo noted that the government appeared to be dwelling more on creating an electricity market by trying to follow the examples in countries like Chile and other places.

According to him, electricity in those countries is not seen from the strategic national development point of view; the way it was reflected in Nigeria’s first national development plan.

The SDP leader said the government is not looking at electricity from the social service point of view but like creating a market for products.

He said the problem with such an approach is that the product the government is trying to create a perfect market for does not exist.

“So, it will be good for the government to forget the idea of creating a perfect market. They should try as much as possible to make supply available, and it is an engineering question.

“There is no amount of change of language that can run away from the fact that people will know when there is electricity. Remember how we used to talk about generating 5,000 megawatts (MW). Now, they have changed it. So, it is just a mathematical language.

“At the end of the day, people will know whether electricity is available, stable and affordable, or not. It requires a lot of investments, and some of the investments have lead time.

“The problem with politics is that the President has only four years. If you have an engineering project that requires 16 years of continuous investment, there is no need lying to the people that you are going to fix it in four years.

“You will see that many people have fallen by the wayside. (The late Justice Minister) Bola Ige came and said that in six months, there would be electricity. If you listened to (erstwhile Works, Housing and Power Minister) Babatunde Fashola, by now we should be swimming in electrical current. I believe that in his house now, he is probably running on a generator.

“So, what we need to understand is the advice I gave in 2001. I remember in September 2001, I attended the National Council on Power and I advised them to de-politicise power and make it an investment, just like you need to de-politicise health care delivery and things like that. This is because these things require time and major investment.