…  “Freezer advice was a comical illustration, not an insult” – Power Minister

Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, issued an apology to Nigerians for his recent remarks criticizing individuals who leave their freezers running and air conditioners continuously for days, clarifying that his intention was to offer innocent advice on energy management to help reduce energy costs.

Chief Adelabu made this appeal when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Thursday, monitored by Advisors Reports.

Recall that the Power Minister last week Friday during the ministerial press briefing organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, blamed some Nigerians for their lack of power consumption management arising from the cheap cost of the electricity.

Adelabu said, “A lot of people will come back from work, and they want to have dinner, or they want to play with their colleagues down the road, they switch on the AC for the room to be cooled 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.”

Meanwhile, in his statement on Channels Television Adelabu said, “The remark 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.

According to him, sincerely, it was passed across jokingly. It was just a comical illustration and never intended to insult anybody.

“It was actually 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 tariffs 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 the 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 setbacks for some year. In fact, the example I gave there were the air conditioners.

Chief Adelabu therefore emphasised, “To Nigerians who felt offended by the statement I say sorry, forgive us. This is our country.”