According to Sunday DAILYPULSE, President Bola Tinubu authorised a 50% power subsidy for public hospitals and educational institutions one month ago, but the program has not yet been put into effect.

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities bemoaned the delay and expressed worry that universities were still having trouble paying their excessive electricity bills.

The CVCNU Secretary-General, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, stated in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, “They haven’t provided any explanation.” We have not changed from where we were. No formal word has been given, and institutions continue to foot enormous expenses. Disconnection of electricity is even a threat to some institutions.

Occasionally, alumni groups, private people, and council chairsmen have stepped in to assist with the monthly expenditures. If nothing changes by the end of this month, we hope to have to insist on meeting with the President, who issued the mandate in the first place, to discuss the noncompliance.

Universities, hospitals, and other institutions were impacted by the electrical distribution firms’ 300 percent pricing rise for Band A clients.

The Nigeria Labour Congress is among the parties that oppose the rate rise, but it has been enforced anyway, leaving institutions unable to make ends meet.

Prof. Lilian Salami, the Chairman of the CVCNU and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, had bemoaned the difficulty of meeting her university’s monthly power cost, which had increased from N80 million to N280 million.

As of the time this report was filed, calls, texts, and WhatsApp messages addressed to Usman Arabi, the NERC spokeswoman, went unanswered, making it impossible to acquire his reaction on the subject.

While this was going on, Mrs. Dibiaezue-Eke Florence, the Ministry of Power’s Director of Information and Public Relations, informed Sunday DAILYPULSE that she had not yet received all the information regarding the issue but that she would get back to her as soon as possible.