The persistent and perennial collapse of the national grid in the last eleven months has turned otherwise bizarre news into a peculiar national mess. Apart from throwing large parts of the country into darkness, questions around the safety of critical national assets have equally dominated the conversation, with authorities providing flimsy assurances that suggest an end to that calamity and catastrophe is not in sight.
On the influential social media platform X, formerly Twitter, a Nigerian influencer even wrote a scathing, though sarcastic message to the organizers of Guinness World Records asking for Nigeria to be recognized as the only country in the world where the collapse of her national grid has set an unmatched record that other nations will struggle to break and catch now and in the future.
He asserted that the frequent national grid collapse represents a new dimension in Nigeria’s chaotic political scene where disgruntled political actors arm rascals and miscreants to deal with the political establishment by going after assets that provide critical services to the people. In a way, the belief is that once citizens are hit by massive economic sabotage, they will peremptorily turn and vent their anger on those in power which will give them leverage to attack, criticize, and target certain political officeholders to score cheap political points.
Perhaps, the deliberate destruction of the various properties in the power sector reminds us of the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta who held the Nigerian government to ransom by vandalizing pipelines for years until the government of late Umar Musa Yar-adua declared amnesty for the militants to assuage their feelings and end the deliberate destruction of oil installations and attendant violence that have disrupted and upended peace and stability in the oil-rich region.
That was in addition to engaging in oil bunkering and other acts of economic sabotage that cost the country billions of dollars in oil revenue. In a way, those acts equally led to environmental degradation and oil spillage, the effect of which is still being felt in the region. The defunct Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), in addition to Niger Delta Avengers, created a menace that continued to have ripple effects on the people till today. In a Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil Frontiers, Michael Peel combed through the creeks of the Niger Delta collecting stories of militants who dealt a huge and devastating blow to the nation’s oil and gas industry. Blockbuster movies such as Black November, and Blood Vessel also captured the situations in the Niger Delta with vivid clarity. But the recent sporadic attacks on the National grid represent a seismic and paradigm shift in the grand scheme of large-scale and coordinated attacks by criminal elements against an integral national asset.
For a fact, we now live in a country where vicious attacks on national assets no longer stun the people. Scores of destructive attacks on various power installations and plants in recent months have revealed a dark web of patterns that have only emboldened attackers. Unless those criminals are shown the firepower of the Nigerian nation, they are likely to trudge that dangerous path for as long as they desire. And their backers will continue to act with impunity while businesses worth billions of dollars get buried under the rubbles of darkness leaving tales of sorrow and suffering in its wake. When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to fix the longstanding rot and crisis in the nation’s power sector, not many believed he would ask a financial expert to man that critical sector. In a surprising twist that jolted onlookers and observers, the President announced Oloye Bayo Adelabu, the former Deputy Governor of the CBN, as the man to lead his power sector reform as one of his ministers last year.
Prior to that announcement and as a way of watering the ground for him, the President had also signed the electricity bill that devolved and decentralized the electricity value chain in a historic and instructive way. That bill gave all the 36 States of the federation, private organizations, and private individuals, the legal backing to independently embark on energy generation, transmission, and distribution. In essence, various states have equally taken up that legal leeway to invest in power projects with private investment. In Ekiti and Oyo States, for instance, we’ve seen the effect of that change in addressing the nation’s yearlong struggle with the power sector.
Still, nothing prepares Nigerians for the breathtaking rate at which the national grid has collapsed in recent times – TEN TIMES in 2024 alone and still counting. Rather than be shocked by the news of the collapse, most Nigerians now appear indifferent to any development that suggests the national grid has collapsed again. Experts have weighed in on the possible and plausible causes of the national grid. While some attributed the collapse to weak infrastructures, others have said it has a strong political undertone that must be addressed without delay.
The minister of power, Oloye Bayo Adelabu’s recent statement assuring Nigerians of the government’s commitment and resolve to address the issues, to some experts, is just a grandstanding that is unlikely to dampen the resolve of the criminals. Tough job as they say demands tough actions. An average Nigerian knows that the power sector in the country has always been in a mess. And that mess has metastasized like a cancer infecting and investing all parts of the nation’s ailing body. Unlike other messes, the power sector is indeed in a peculiar mess, and any substantial solution appear far fetched for the average people.
Ultimately, nothing suggests a more peculiar situation than a nation that supplies two of her neighbors with regular power supply but struggles to sufficiently provide the energy needs of her people. For both the Niger Republic and the Republic of Benin to depend on Nigeria for their energy supply while Nigerians grapple with darkness is a reflection of the dangerous mix of power, politics, and peculiar mess in our power sector. Will Oloye Bayo Adelabu help fix the mess in the next two years?
OYO101 is Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion about issues affecting the Oyo state and is published every Saturday. He can be reached via @Upliftnuggets on X, muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com, and 09065176850.
