The minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has said that President Bola Tinubu is working hard to change the narrative in the power sector in Nigeria. Adelabu said this in Abuja while hosting a delegation from the World Bank in his office. In a statement signed by Bolaji Tunji, his special adviser on Strategic Communications and Media Relations, the minister said that the Tinubu administration decided to, unlike its predecessors, give serious consideration to the decaying infrastructure and archaic transmission and billing system in order to move power generation and distribution forward. The result of that efforts, according to the minister, is that in less than two years the administration has succeeded in adding 1,800 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, about 200 megawatts less than the 2,000 that it took previous administrations to do in 40 years. The minister regretted that “If the past administrations have been adding things like this, we will not be where we are today.”
He also spoke about the lack of commitment to drive purposeful programmes that would have helped to galvanise the power sector. For instance, he said that the partnership with Siemens that was signed in 2019 only began to work in 2023, when the current administration came to power. He expressed optimism about the future of the power sector because of the commitment and determination of the Tinubu administration. He said, “We entered into Siemens contract since 2019. We never lifted a finger until 2023, when this government came on board. So, you can now imagine since this President came in and now look at the mileage we have achieved. Even in this Siemens project, the pilot phase is almost completed and that is in less than two years, when in four years we didn’t do anything.”
While lamenting the problem that assailed the power sector for several years, Adelabu said infrastructure and transmission were allowed to age with little efforts at maintenance for decades, while about half of power consumers have access to meters. Hear him: “How will you explain the kind of infrastructure that we put together for our transmission network across the country? Thousands of kilometers of power line, thousands of power transformers, hundreds of thousands of distribution transformers that we have not maintained over time and expect them to keep sustaining our energy supply. It is not possible. How do we allow our people to be vandalizing infrastructure and expect stable electricity? So how do you have a sector with over 12 million customers, and our meter is not more than six million and we expect to have a stable industry? No, it’s not possible. So, what has happened with past governments?
“In 1984, when the military was in power here, we achieved 2000 megawatts. Between 1984 and 2023, it took us 40 years to add an additional 2000 megawatts. Now we have an average of 5,800 megawatts generation within one and a half years that we came to the office. What I’m saying is that, if the past administrations have been adding things like this, we will not be where we are today. And that is why I said that President Tinubu is actually laying the kind of foundation that we need for our country to grow”.
So, what is that magic wand that has worked for the current administration in its handling of the power sector? The minister said, “One thing that this administration has brought to the table is the seriousness, the determination, the commitment to make sure that the power sector is transformed. That’s why it’s good to have a practical businessman, a practical finance person and politician at the helm of affairs, like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Perhaps another factor is the support of the World Bank in the efforts to improve the services in the power sector in Nigeria. He told his guests, “We’ve seen your support in transmission, we’ve seen your support in distribution, we have seen your support in renewable energy, almost in every facet, even in generation.”
He, therefore, assured the visitors that the federal government is ready to double its efforts in power generation and distribution.
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