Political Economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, has said that Nigeria needs to revalidate or scrap the Band A power supply strategy.
He recently expressed his concern over the extortion, insisting that the strategy is currently “reaping off” Nigerians.
Speaking at a recent news conference on the “state of the nation” in Lagos, Utomi revealed that the Band A category is “exploitative and lacking in economic sense.”
According to him, if the Band A system is not immediately revalidated or revamped, it could easily impoverish Nigerians, especially the working class.
He stated that citizens are currently spending 75 per cent of their salaries on just electricity bills, which should not be the case.
“A university professor in Band A for instance, spends 75 per cent of his salary on electricity tariff alone.
If not speedily revalidated, this tariff system will further impoverish Nigerians, especially the working class,” he said.
Speaking further on legislations, Utomi advised the National Assembly to focus more on legislations that would better the lives of Nigerians.
He stressed that even though oversight remains a key part of the functions of the national assembly, it should not be prioritised over legislations.
Pat concluded by saying that the National Assembly should have finished with all electoral reforms for the nation a while back.
“We need pragmatic electoral reforms.
It is sad that till this moment, the national assembly has yet to finish all reforms on our elections.
It will be a disservice to Nigeria if the nation will go into 2027 with a flawed constitution.
In addition, there are areas like insecurity and issue amendments for rural policing which had become germaine in the face of worsening crime situation in Nigeria.
It is fundamental that Nigeria should decentralise its policing such that communities or councils can have their own armed police forces as should states, in addition to the Federal police forces.
This is the fastest way now to combat insecurity,” he added.
