Electricity Subsidy: How FG, IMF Juggle Figures To Confuse Nigerians –Falana

Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, has, again, spoken about the vexed issue of electricity subsidy, accusing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Federal Government of juggling figures to deceive and blackmail Nigerians.

Falana, a reputed Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said this called for a probe.

Speaking via a statement yesterday, he noted that on March 23, 2021, the Federal Government announced its plan to end electricity subsidy by the end of that year, and that it followed this up by actually stopping payment of electricity subsidy in 2022.

He thus wondered why the IMF was inferring that the palliative would cost Nigeria N2.33tn’ in 2024, adding that something was obviously not clear.

“From the foregoing, it is undoubtedly clear that the IMF and the Federal Government are juggling figures of electricity subsidy to blackmail and deceive the Nigerian people.

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“Whereas the IMF claims that ‘fuel and electricity subsidy will cost Nigeria N2.33tn’ in 2024, the Federal Government has given a subsidy figure of N3tn from the sum of N700bn allegedly consumed by subsidy in 2023.

“Curiously, the Federal Ministry of Finance has failed to reconcile the conflicting figures being peddled around by the IMF and Ministry of Power”, the legal luminary said.

He said the government should actually institute a panel of inquiry to investigate the claim of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu that subsidy for 2024 is N3tn.

“Since the Buhari administration had stopped electricity subsidy in 2022, the Federal Government should institute a panel of inquiry to investigate the claim of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu that electricity subsidy for 2024 is N3tn.

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“The inquiry is necessary as arrangements have been concluded by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to further hike electricity tariffs under the pretext of removing subsidy from the sector. The panel should also inquire into the diversion of the N32bn paid into the account of a private company account in 2003 for the supply of three million prepaid metres in the country.”

Quoting the Special Adviser to former President Muhammadu Buhari on Infrastructure, Ahmad Zakari, and former Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, as stating at different occasions the removal of electricity subsidy, Falana queried why Adelabu should claim on January 15, 2024, that, “the Federal Government still subsidised electricity.

“The inquiry is necessary as arrangements have been concluded by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to further hike electricity tariffs under the pretext of removing subsidy from the sector.

“The panel should also inquire into the diversion of the N32bn paid into the account of a private company account in 2003 for the supply of three million prepaid metres in the country”, the senior advocate said.

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