IT’S THE POWER SECTOR, STUPID!
One person is mourning the loss of a damaged TV. Another is packing out rotten food from a freezer that has not seen steady light in days. A family is treating heat rashes because the fan won’t work, and the heat is unprecedented. A small business owner is calculating how much of her profit has gone toward powering the generator. An artisan sits idle because there is no power to run his tools. A company diverts expansion funds to diesel.
The title of this piece is deliberate. Those who know, know. I won’t insult your intelligence with a history lesson. The point is, we keep dancing around the obvious while the obvious keeps messing with us.
It is the power sector. And until we confront it head-on, everything else is cosmetic.
During the campaign, aspirant Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised improved power supply. In 2025, President Tinubu assured delegates from Siemens that electricity reforms would move faster. Since then? Crickets.
Meanwhile, supply keeps dipping. Voltage swings. Entire feeders collapse without warning. National grid collapses! In a previous piece, I called out the rot across the entire value chain and how unbearable it has become. Still, crickets. It’s worse off!
The power value chain is in a shambles. DISCOs are emperors unto themselves. GENCOs are owed billions. Transmission is fragile. Nigerians are paying the price.
It goes without saying that if power works, a huge chunk of our productivity problem disappears. Barbers, welders, tailors, cold-room operators, SMEs, corporations, large enterprises, et al, give them steady electricity and watch the economy breathe. Instead, we are running a generator economy. Diesel is swallowing profits. Fuel is eating school fees.
Not everyone can afford solar panels like the President’s Aso Villa. Most Nigerians live at the mercy of erratic supply that damages appliances and kills businesses.
Some of us supported this administration because we believed it had the spine to take on hard reforms. Yes, tough decisions have been made in other sectors, and it’s beginning to pay off. But power cannot remain the weak link. It cannot be the constant embarrassment.
If the minister is the problem, show him the door! If DISCO licenses need to be reviewed, review them. If debts must be restructured, restructure them. If contracts are stalling progress, revisit them. Whatever needs to give, let it give.
We are tired of excuses. We are tired of darkness. We are tired of generators drowning out conversation in our own homes.
Fix the power sector. Fix the value chain. Fix whatever is broken. Nigerians have endured epileptic supply for decades. Enough of this rubbish!
Chiechefulam Ikebuiro,
