Geregu: The Metaphor and Mirage of Nigeria’s Energy Crisis 

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Edited by Oke Epia, E-mail: sostainability01@gmail.com  | WhatsApp: +234 8034000706

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By Oke Epia

The unfolding debt controversy involving Geregu Power has raised some germane issues. While financial, energy, and corporate governance pundits are exploring various dimensions of the company’s N40 billion bond default, it is important to ponder the broader implications for energy access and the knock-on effect on productivity and economic growth. This makes it imperative to consider Geregu as symptomatic and metaphorical of Nigeria’s energy crisis. A crisis magnified by the comparative statistics on energy access: World Bank 2024 data says 62.5 percent of Nigeria’s population has access to energy. It is 99.9 percent for India and Indonesia, while Bangladesh has 99.5 percent. It is 100 per cent for Morocco and Algeria, 72 per cent for Rwanda and Cameroon, and 90.2 per cent for South Africa. 

While Nigeria is making efforts to close this uncomfortable gap, Geregu is yet another ugly manifestation of Nigeria’s power conundrum. Acquired in 2013 by a firm owned by billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, the company has three gas-fired turbines with an installed capacity of 435MW and, on its website (which, by the way, contains obsolete information), describes itself as “one of Nigeria’s leading GENCOs that uses gas turbine as a clean energy source to generate power.” The website further says, “we are fascinated by the idea that a nation can thrive simply through the efficient supply of electricity through the development of improved power infrastructures and sustainable power generation.” In December 2025, Otedola sold his interest in the company to AbdulAzeez Yari, a former member of the House of Representatives, former two-term governor of Zamfara State, and incumbent senator. The deal was worth USD 750 million. Otedola exited as chairman of the board, and Yari stepped in as replacement alongside a new management. Recently, Geregu became a headline news item for defaulting on debt secured before the change of guard. This led to immediate consequences, not just for the company and its present and past owners, but also for the federal government’s commitment to tackling the country’s energy challenges. Agusto & Co withdrew its ‘A’ credit rating assigned to the company. This will have consequences for Nigeria’s drive to attract foreign investment, especially in the power sector that has witnessed a string of structural, institutional, and governance failures over the years.

Since the Geregu debt bubble burst, Yari and his team have promptly pointed fingers at Otedola. Yari reportedly coughed up six billion naira to pay the bond as a gesture of reassurance to investors that the company can discharge its obligations. The question of Yari’s stupendous wealth and humongous acquisitions is not a subject for this page. But he and his team have unleashed a string of accusations on Otedola and the previous management of Geregu Power. His decision to pay the bond “does not close the underlying matter, and it does not absolve the former owners of a disappointing legacy.” He was quoted as saying: “I want to be precise about what this means and what it does not mean. This is not an admission that the obligation is personally mine, nor is it a judgment that the current board or management created this problem. It is a decision made in the interest of the institution I am privileged to chair. Our objective, ultimately, is a final, mutually acceptable resolution: fair treatment or reimbursement of the funds I am advancing now to protect the company, and clear, dependable arrangements for the company’s future obligations to bondholders.”

In all of these, not much was heard from Otedola until a few days ago when he posted a picture of himself and Yari after a meeting in Monaco on Instagram. The post had this cryptic message: “Such a lovely afternoon today, 23 August 2026, with His Excellency Senator AbdulAzeez Yari at Hotel de Paris in Monaco, Southern France. Congratulations on your appointment as DG of the Presidential Campaign Council.” The irony of this post is lost on no one, except those either too naïve to read between the lines or those who have become numbed by the unrelenting assault on decency, civility, and the hapless Nigerian citizenry by a rampaging elite class. Yari was announced as head of the presidential campaign council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a development that has itself become so controversial that President Bola Tinubu had to order a rejigging of the council in response to public backlash over the inclusion of persons facing high-profile corruption allegations. The choice of Yari as director-general of Tinubu’s reelection campaign at a time when Geregu has become a metaphor for much of the malfeasance in Nigeria’s energy sector does not bode well for the president’s comeback bid. Especially against the backdrop of his first-term campaign promise to fix the country’s power crisis – in fact, Tinubu’s viral “if I don’t give you constant electricity in four years, don’t vote for me when I come back for second term” comment has become a weapon self-fashioned against him in the current circumstance. Never mind that a media aide has tried to spin it by saying Tinubu was quoted out of context.

By the way, Otedola’s social post has since become a feed for the unfolding media war on Geregu, as a section of mainstream media has been reporting on a ‘reconciliation’ between himself and Yari – members of the same elite class, albeit adorned in different garbs. The strings of Nigeria’s politico-economy are pulled by politicians and their collaborators in boardrooms, who are doubling down together to protect their class interests over national interest. There is no better way to understand this than the message and optics Otedola released from Monaco. Water is finding its level at their pedestal. But not so for the 86 million Nigerians who lack access to electricity in the year 2026. It is not so for a failing power grid that has collapsed 105 times in 10 years. It is not so for millions of citizens in rural areas who must continue to cut trees and burn wood to cook food at the cost of deforestation, global warming, escalating environmental pollution, and constant exposure to health risks.  

The Geregu story and what it represents is precisely the kind of context and content fit for SOStainability’s RENEW Nigeria Reports and the SDG7 Snapshot cooking in the crucibles of research and documentation. More on this later.