Electricity Tariff Hike: Lead The Protest, Nigerians Tell Atiku

Many Nigerians on social media have called on former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to stop online complaints about irregularities in the country if he is not willing to lead physical protests.

The citizens said that they want the former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party to lead a protest against the recent increase in electricity tariffs.

ABN TV reported on Tuesday that the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) across the country have started the implementation of a new electricity tariff regime.

This comes after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ordered the DisCos to maintain a N4 tariff for all customers consuming less than 50kWh of energy per month.

The commission said Nigerians would have to pay more to enjoy power for longer hours, an implementation that has generated furore on social media.

Reacting to the development on Thursday, Mr Abubakar, in a post on Twitter, said he rejected the hike, saying it was “ill-timed and ill-advised”

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“I reject the increased electricity tariffs. Coming out of the lockdown, Nigerians need a stimulus, not an impetuous disregard for the challenges they face. Many Nigerians have not earned an income for months, due to no fault of theirs. This increase is ill-timed and ill-advised”, he wrote.

Not comfortable with mere tweets, Nigerians, however, called out the former vice president to take responsibility by leading a protest to show his displeasure with the new tariff regime.