By Seun Ibiyemi
Economist and Convener of The Big Tent, Prof. Pat Utomi, has called on the Federal Government to urgently reassess and potentially abolish the Band A electricity tariff, condemning it as “exploitative” and unfairly draining the resources of Nigerian citizens.
Speaking at a news conference on the state of the nation in Lagos on Monday, Utomi argued that the Band A category, which covers customers guaranteed at least 20 hours of power supply daily, imposes an unsustainable financial burden on many households.
The tariff falls under the service-based structure introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), with Band A customers paying the highest rates.
“A university professor in Band A, for instance, spends 75 per cent of his salary on electricity bills alone,” Utomi noted. “If this tariff system is not urgently reviewed, it will deepen the impoverishment of Nigerians, especially the working class.”
He appealed to the National Assembly to place greater priority on legislations that directly improve the welfare of citizens.
“We need practical electoral reforms. It is disappointing that, to this day, the National Assembly has yet to conclude all the necessary reforms on our elections. It will be a great disservice to Nigeria if the country enters 2027 with a defective constitution,” he stated.
Utomi further advocated a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s policing framework to allow communities, councils, and states to operate their own armed police forces alongside the federal police.
He stressed that decentralised policing offers the quickest route to addressing the country’s escalating insecurity, which has left many rural communities trapped in persistent poverty.
“The depth of insecurity in Nigeria has forced peasant farmers off their land and eroded their quality of life,” he said.
“Poverty makes vulnerable populations easy targets for those seeking to destabilise the system for political or criminal gain. Fighting poverty with real commitment will reduce insecurity.”
He also called for reforms in the land tenure system to ease farmers’ access to credit and boost agricultural productivity, stressing the importance of functional land registries and university-led agricultural extension services.
Utomi maintained that Nigeria has not yet become a failed state but cautioned that “existential threats” must be tackled collectively. “Nigerians must come together to rescue the nation,” he concluded.