Indications have emerged to the effect that Nigerians are becoming frustratingly impatient, with the service of Minister for Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
The former Deputy Governor of The Central Bank was appointed some months ago, as Minister for Power by President Bola Tinubu ostensibly, to stabilize power in the country and make it available for all and sundary to enhance economic of the country.
Feelers have revealed however, that power supply which was better before Adelabu came into office have become worse.
According to members of the public who spoke with Thepressngr.com, to ventilate their concern regarding the development, Adelabu has turned out to be an embarrassment to the Tinubu government even as he was accused of ” busy running around to becoming governor instead of facing the job on the table”
It was alleged that the Minister is ” more concerned about his ambition to be the next governor of oyo state and as a result, he comes to ibadan every weekend to hold meetings with his political group doing everything to emerge as the APC party flag bearer in 2027 guber-election”
In recent years, the Nigerian power sector has experienced many broad challenges related to electricity policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and major power sector planning shortfalls.
Nigeria has struggled with poor power supply for decades, a challenge that is estimated to cost businesses about $29 billion yearly, according to the World Bank.
The country has the lowest access to electricity globally, with about 92 million persons out of the country’s 200 million population lacking access to power, according to the Energy Progress Report 2022 released by Tracking SDG 7.
Successive governments have promised but failed to turn around the country’s power sector which on average produces about 4,000 megawatts for a population of 200 million.
The Buhari administration in July 2019 signed a deal with Germany’s Siemens to overhaul the sector. The plan has three phases, ultimately targeting 25,000 MW of operational capacity long term from 7,000 MW and 11,000 to be achieved by 2021 and 2023, respectively, through the first two phases.
The country also plans to generate 30,000MW by 2030 with 3,000MW coming from renewables and 27,000MW from its power plants to serve its over 200 million people.
Over the years, poor maintenance of electricity infrastructure has been one of the major causes of poor supply in the country. The vandalism of the transmission infrastructures and distribution equipment has also been a common occurrence.
In March 2022, a 330kv Sapele to Benin transmission line tripped off after serial vandalisation of the facility affected some towers under it. Again in March, the country suffered extensive power outages when 18 plants accounting for most of the electricity the country generates faced operational problems.
