I was elated earlier in the week, when former Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, who is currently the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala lent her weighty voice to the call for decentralisation of electricity transmission in our country.

Of course, Okonjo-Iweala spoke in context, as she was addressing her audience on the role of Artificial Intelligence, AI in socio-economic development. She made it clear that for Nigeria not to be left behind, internet access must be increased so that more citizens can be upskilled in the use of AI, which, she noted might be elusive if we don’t crack the electricvity conundrum. 

Her words: “Underpinning all that, of course, is access to reliable electricity power supply. Power outages and constant interruptions might prove a more challenging constraint in Nigeria and other African countries to internet access and AI adoption than anything else.

“In other words, we could lay out the smartest approaches to the adoption of AI, like the federal government and AUST are trying to do, but find that efforts undermine our lack of access to the very basics – electricity infrastructure.

“Here, I would propose that we take a more decentralized approach to electricity provision in the country in light of the improved affordability of renewable energy.

“Each production, consumption and learning unit that is able should try to create its electricity supply through renewables.”

I have repeatedly made the call on this space that it is not sensible to continue to insist on one switch for the whole country, which currently is the Transmission Company of Nigeria. With 13 grid collapses last year alone and experiencing the first collapse barely 10 days into 2025, it is become increasingly clear that the grid is becoming more and more difficult to manage. I also proposed earlier that engineers be made to look at the possiblity of splitting the grid, or decentralising it, as Okonjo-Iweala suggested along the the lines of the geo-political zones. I am of the opinion that six smaller grids can better be managed than one single, unwieldy grid that is prone to frequent collapses.

I am however not encouraged by what is the public space from those who should give consideration to these calls. In fact, I was peeved when Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu told Nigerians and the rest of the world that there is no end in sight to collapses of the national grid. He spoke in the Senate chamber where he had gone to defend his sectors’s budgetary allocation. Adelabu, said the national electricity grid remains vulnerable to frequent collapses, partly because government is yet to repair a major transmission line in the Northern region due to persisting insecurity.

He said grid collapses will continue but noted that the government will ensure that it reduces the frequency of collapses and ensures a very short turnaround time to restore the grid, stressing that vandalisation remains one of the biggest challenges in the power sector.

Adelabu’s words, to me, reflect the quality of thinking that is going into the management of the nation’s power sector. From him, it seem government has given up on the sector as it continues to teeter on the brink of a cataclysmic convulsion that may eventually ground the whole country. He has blamed insecurity, another major headache that refuses to go away, despite administration of diverse remedies.

But beyond that, there seems to be no co-ordinated, clear plan to address the huge challenges facing the power sector, ranging from underfunding, indebtedness by the DISCOs, vandalism, the single grid issue, and a host of other issues, big or small. A pointer to this is was the statement credited to President Tinubu, represented by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa at the 55th Convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos. His words:

“We recognize that our universities are not just centers of learning but also engines of national innovation. That is why we are fostering stronger partnerships between academia and industry, and why we are committed to resuscitating critical projects like the Rural Electrification initiative. The University of Lagos, among other institutions, will soon benefit from solar power installations, furthering our vision of a sustainable education ecosystem.”

This looks like a response pulled from the air for an audience hungry for good news. It is known that the universities are now paying hundreds of millions of naira as electricity bills with the new tariffs emplaced. I would expect that a concrete plan should have been worked out to take the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and other tertiary institutions off the national grid, with a view to powering them from sustainable, less costly means. No.

What we’re getting are disjointed, knee-jerk responses, the way one type of palliative or the other were being thrown at us after the peremptory removal of subsidy on petrol. My take: the faction of the power elite running the show at the moment is not only unprepared for the task, but displaying debilitating lack of rigour in the management of public affairs. That is the muck in which we are mired. Any hope? TGIF.