By KAZEEM AKINTUNDE
When President Bola Tinubu inaugurated Adebayo Adelabu as the Minister of Power, alongside 44 others cleared by the Senate for appointment as Ministers on August 21, 2023, he most probably knew that the man knows next to nothing about power generation, transmission, and distribution. Yet, he was appointed as Minister of Power, to provide electricity for millions of Nigerians.
During his campaign for the office, Tinubu had told Nigerians that he intended to turn the sector around for good and promised to do so within two years. However, his administration would clock three years in office in a few months’ time, and the power sector is still in a state of limbo. Adelabu seems to have no answer to the intractable problem facing the power sector in Nigeria. A first-class degree holder in Accounting from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Adelabu is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He started his career with PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), an international firm of chartered accountants and management consultants.
He was a Deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in charge of operations, having been appointed to that role by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February, 2014. In a clime where round pegs are put in round holes, Adelabu would have been more useful in the management of the nation’s economy. But for political expediency, he was made the Minister of Power. Upon assuming his new office, Adelabu assured that the Federal Government would empower Nigerians through stable and accessible electricity. To achieve the feat, he said his ministry would leverage the Nigerian Electricity Act 2023 to boost power supply in the country. Thirty months down the line, Adelabu has generated more misery for most Nigerians, who have had to pay more for darkness. In the last one month, most parts of the country have been in complete darkness, partly due to the dry season, during which the heat in most homes compromises the well-being of occupants in what can best be described as “a living hell.” The excuse this time around is that some of the power generating stations are presently encountering gas supply shortages. But most Nigerians are not convinced as they know that the hawks within the system are deliberately sabotaging it so that the federal government would accede to their request to start the payment of another round of subsidy in the electricity sector.
After President Tinubu stopped the subsidy regime in the petroleum sector, he has allowed himself to be hoodwinked into another subsidy regime in the power sector.
The problem, Tinubu was made to believe, started in 2013, when the federal government privatised the power sector and on-boarded 11 distribution companies. Since then, a combination of government-regulated tariffs that do not cover the full cost of generation, chronic liquidity shortfalls in the electricity market, and foreign exchange constraints has kept operators in a cycle of unpaid invoices. The accumulated debt, which the federal government must pay, is reportedly in the region of N6 trillion.
On April 3, 2024, the Federal Government removed ‘subsidies’ for Band A customers only, increasing electricity rates to N225/kWh, while Band B – E remained ‘subsidised’. When the Generating Companies met with President Tinubu last year, they claimed that the government was owing them over N4 trillion as the differentials for those paying meagre tariff by customers on Bands B to E. Few months later, they returned to the Presidency to state that the debt had risen to N6 trillion, prompting the President to order for a forensic audit of the debts. At the end of the audit exercise, Tinubu said that the Federal Government could only confirm N2.8 trillion, and that is what would be paid. He also went ahead to raise N501 billion through bonds, and tied the payment of the N501 billion to the purchase of gas, as several of the Gencos were also owing gas supply companies.
However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) fiercely opposed any large-scale payment to the operators, describing the move as “a grand deception and a well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people”, and questioning why companies that acquired national assets for only N400bn should receive trillions in government support after failing to significantly improve generation capacity, which still fluctuates between 2,000 and 5,000 megawatts.
Nonetheless, President Tinubu went ahead to pay. He also intended to pay the GenCos another tranche of N600 billion to N800 billion in May or June, while the remaining will be spread over another 12 to 24 months.
The GenCos have received the N501 billion, but it is not clear whether those gas companies were paid. Now that they have stopped supplying gas to the GenCos, the whole nation is being held to ransom through the all-familiar darkness.
If the government is not willing to bend to the blackmail of the GenCos, then, they should be allowed to charge cost-reflective tariff for customers on Bands B to E. That would mean that Nigerians would have to pay more for electricity. With the 2027 general elections just a few months away, that would have a negative impact on Tinubu’s re-election bid. Indeed, we are in a peculiar mess.
Nigeria is definitely in a peculiar mess, and as the common man always says in periods of hopelessness, “It is well”. But, is it?
I gave up on the power sector witnessing any improvement when the seat of Power, the Aso Rock, earmarked N10 billion to generate electricity through solar. In its 2025 budget estimate, the sum of N10 billion was set aside to get Aso Rock off the national grid. Again, in the 2026 budget estimate, another sum of N7 billion had been set aside for the completion of the project. Temitope Fashedemi, State House Permanent Secretary, while defending the budget before the Senate Committee on Special Duties, said that the villa is expected to fully disconnect from the national electricity grid by March, this year.
Aso Rock decided to go solar when it was slammed with a debt of N923 million by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), with a threat to cut off power supply to the Villa if those debts were not cleared. That was in 2024. Embarrassed at the turn of events, President Tinubu ordered a reconciliation of figures and the debt bill came down to N342 million, which he ordered to be paid immediately. Since then, the plan to take the villa off the grid was put on the front burner, which has almost come to fruition. If the seat of government could not pay the outrageous bill charged by AEDC and still grapples with darkness within the Villa, which most times, runs on generators, I wonder if it is ordinary Nigerians, who have been pushed to the wall in every sense of the hard-knock life that would have the capacity to pay more for the incompetence of the AEDC.
Few days after he came to power, President Tinubu, on June 8, 2023, repealed the 2005 electricity Act and signed into law, the Electricity Act of 2023, which gave power to State Governors and private investors to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity with the aims to enhance efficiency, promote renewable energy, and create a competitive market, enabling states to license mini-grids, and manage their own power needs. However, little or no progress has been made, as many of the states don’t seem interested in generating their own electricity.
The shift, while hailed by stakeholders as a leap towards energy decentralisation and market competitiveness, is already raising questions over capacity gaps, regulatory clarity, subsidy management, and potential friction between state and federal oversight. This is because NERC appears to be losing relevance in the very sector it was created to govern.
While officials at NERC expressed reservations about some states’ ability to manage their power markets, some industry experts submitted that the development had created opportunities with challenges.
So far, 11 states have commenced the transition process, with seven states — including Enugu, Ondo, Ekiti, Imo, Oyo, Edo, and Kogi — already transitioned, while other states, including Lagos, Ogun, Niger, and Plateau, are expected to complete their transitions between June and September, this year. Anambra State, having recently passed its Electricity Law, is also gearing up to join the list.
Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, successive administrations have injected over $50 billion investments into improving the capacity of Nigeria to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity, but most of the funds ended up in the private pockets of government officials and politicians. In spite of the huge resources spent on the sector, Nigeria can’t even boast of generating over 10, 000 megawatts of electricity, whereas South Africa has over 50,000 megawatts. This means that whereas South Africans enjoy 24/7 electricity supply, households and companies in Nigeria stay in perpetual darkness, even when they pay massive bills, they don’t get services or value for their hard-earned money.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria remains a cesspool of corruption and a theatre of managerial inefficiency sustained by the Federal Government. Further, Ministers of Power, since 2014, have been persons devoted to working for themselves and elevating their political profiles than rendering selfless service to Nigerian electricity consumers.
Several past Ministers of Power are facing criminal charges of heists of billions of dollars belonging to Nigerians, and if you look at the cases against them by the EFCC, it would become clear why we suffer perennial darkness even whilst governments claim that they are investing our commonwealth to improve electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
The current Minister of Power is not different, unfortunately. He has focused all his attention on running for the post of Governor of Oyo State, leaving electricity consumers OYO – On Your Own (in local parlance). While Nigerians are perpetually in darkness, many of the GenCos are declaring stupendous profits at the end of each year. Transcorp Power Limited, owned by Tony Elumelu, with 60 per cent controlling shares, in its 2024 financial report, announced a 115 per cent increase in revenue from N142.1 billion in 2023 to N305.9 billion in 2024. Its Profits After Tax witnessed a 165 per cent surge to N80 billion, yet, many households are in perpetual darkness in Abuja and other states in its franchise. It is the same scenario with most of the GenCos, yet Nigerians are still not paying Cost Reflective Tariffs.
The people’s patience is wearing thin. In Lagos last week, there were several protests by frustrated Nigerians, especially youths, who took to the streets to protest the abysmal performance in the electricity sector. The National Grid kept breaking down almost on a monthly basis, and we still can’t find a solution in sight. Many business owners are frustrated by lack of electricity and can no longer afford to buy Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, due to its high cost.
Nigeria is definitely in a peculiar mess, and as the common man always says in periods of hopelessness, “It is well”. But, is it?
See you next week.
READ ALSO:
UK visit: Disgruntled mining company plotting against Tinubu -FG
Four dead, four injured in Lekki–Epe Expressway crash
ADC releases timetable for congresses ahead of convention
Atiku loses media aide, mourns
Cocaine in balloons: UK-bound 74-year-old grandpa arrested
Strait of Hormuz: Trump warns of more strikes on Kharg Island
Gowon praises Tinubu’s economic efforts, urges support for govt
Nigeria football mourns again as 1980 AFCON winner, Henry Nwosu, dies at 62
The Tinubu enigma: Power, strategy and the Nigerian state
A country without earthquakes — yet shaken by itself
Troops eliminate 10 terrorists, thwart ISWAP infiltration in Borno
Soludo’s second inauguration: Police, others beef up security
