Fatimah Otunsanya
Apparently overwhelmed by the country’s power woes, the Federal Government is pushing this challenge to the 36 states, asking them to take over power generation, transmission, and distribution.
The Federal Government said this was the only solution to the power crisis in the country.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, said this in Lagos on Tuesday at the Nigeria Energy Leadership Summit.
Despite a series of efforts to make power available to Nigerians, the power sector seems to have defied all solutions by successive governments to sanitise the industry.
Speaking at the conference, Adelabu said the Federal Government was aware that power centralisation could never work for Nigeria, and that was why President Bola Tinubu’s administration signed the Electricity Act in 2023.
“On legislation, the enactment of the Electricity Act 2023 remains a major milestone. Sincerely, it is the pathfinder.
It provides a robust governance and regulatory framework for the Nigerian electricity supply industry.
The Act devolves regulatory powers to the states, enables subnational markets, promotes competition, and empowers private participation across the value chain.
“The impact of this legislation includes decentralisation and liberalisation. A country as big as Nigeria, with almost a million square kilometres of landmass, over 200 million people, millions of businesses, thousands of institutions (health and educational institutions), 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, and 774 local governments—centralisation cannot work for us.
The responsibility of providing stable electricity can never be left in the hands of the Federal Government.
“At the centre, you cannot, from Abuja, guarantee stable power across the country. So this is one thing that the Act has achieved—decentralisation. That has now allowed all the states or the subnationals to play in all segments of the power sector value chain—generation, transmission, distribution, and even service industries supporting the power sector,” he stated.