In a bid to address recent controversy surrounding his comments on power consumption habits among Nigerians, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has issued a public apology and emphasized the need for energy conservation.
Adelabu expressed regret over his earlier remarks, where he criticized Nigerians for leaving their freezers and air conditioners running when not at home, attributing it to a lack of awareness about power consumption management.
During a press briefing last week, Adelabu highlighted the issue of power wastage due to inefficient usage habits, stressing the need for a cultural shift towards responsible energy consumption.
He had said,“A lot of people will come back from work, they want to have dinner, or they want to see their colleagues down the road, they switch on the AC for the room to be cooling before they come back.
“Some people will be going to work in the morning, a freezer that you left on for days, they will still leave it on when all the items in the freezer are frozen and 5, 6, 8 hours of their absence will not make it to defreeze, they will still leave it to be consuming power just because we are not paying enough.
“We have all been overseas before; we know how conscious the power consumers are about electricity consumption.”
However, in a recent appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the minister clarified that his comments were not intended as an insult but rather aimed at raising awareness about the importance of energy conservation.
It was never intended to insult the sensibility of Nigerians. Sincerely, if you watch that video very well, i never said people should switch off their freezers,”he said.
“It was actually an innocent advice with regards to energy consumption management which we believe will go a long way in reducing people’s energy bills.
“And that advice was actually directed to those we believe because of the recent increase in tariff that start enjoying 20 to 22 hours of power supply. What I said was that the fact that the electricity tariff for Band A, which is 15 percent of electricity consumers, would increase by over 200 percent does not necessarily translate to 200 percent of their electricity bills if power is managed in terms of consumption.
“But the example of the freezer, well, may not have gone down well with majority of Nigerians and I’ll say oh, sorry about that. It was never my intention to insult anybody.
“It was just out of my passion and eagerness to see that we make a change in the sector which has suffered a lot of set back for some years… in fact, the example I gave there were the air conditioners.
“A lot of people leave them on while they’re still not in the room. Sincerely, it was passed across jokingly. It was just a comical illustration and never intended to insult anybody. So, to Nigerians who felt offended by the statement I say sorry, forgive us. This is our country.”.
