TheCable

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, has appealed to Nigerians to accept the new electricity tariff, describing it as “a painful pill that must be swallowed”.

Speaking in Lagos on Monday while inspecting some projects at the Alagbon Transmission and Distribution Complex, Fashola said the past government ought to have introduced that the new price regime.

He begged the public for understanding, saying the people will soon start seeing the reward of the additional charges.

“It is a painful pill that I appeal we must swallow. It is like quinine and malaria, which is painful; it’s not sweet, I know, but I do it because we are not left with many choices,” he said.

“I can only appeal for some understanding and some trust that we do this in the best interest of our country. It is a hard decision; this is the first major decision in power that this administration has taken.

“I understand that people who have been disappointed over a long time will feel a sense of concern that again tariffs have gone up. But the truth is that these tariffs ought to have been there from day one. I don’t know why the government of yesterday was not courageous enough to tell us this was the price.”

The organised labour staged series of protests across the country on Monday, calling on the government not to implement the new tariff.