…Experts Demand Urgent Action To Address Power Sector Crisis
The country’s power sector faced unprecedented challenges in 2024, with a staggering 12 national grid collapses and the destruction of 128 transmission towers.
Despite being one of the largest economies in Africa, Nigeria’s electricity woes persist, leaving millions of citizens and businesses grappling with frequent power outages and unreliable energy supply. The devastating impact of these incidents on the economy, public confidence, and national image cannot be overstated.
By November 2024, Nigeria had recorded its 12th national grid collapse. The incident, which occurred three times in a single week, crippled power supply across the country, exposing the vulnerabilities in the nation’s power grid. These collapses, combined with the destruction of 128 transmission towers, disrupted industrial activity and further eroded public trust in the energy sector.
THE WHISTLER had reported that Nigeria recorded its first grid collapse on February 4, and had the second incident on March 28, and the third event on April 15.
The breakdown of the collapse statistics revealed that there was a grid collapse on Saturday, July 16; Monday, August 5; Monday, October 14; Tuesday, October 15; Saturday, October 19; Tuesday, November 5; Thursday, November 7; and Wednesday, November 11
Also, a statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Power on November 27, confirmed that the Federal Government has spent about N8.8bn to repair and put into functional use transmission towers vandalised across the country.
The statement quoted the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN), Engr. Suleiman Ahmed Abdulaziz, to have disclosed this while speaking at the Quarterly Power Sector Working Group meeting in Abuja.
Abdulaziz, who was represented by the Executive Director, Transmission Service Provider (TSO) of TCN, Engr. Olugbenga Emmanuel Ajiboye said between January 13, 2024, and now, 128 transmission towers have been destroyed, either by vandals or bandits, across the country.
“As I talk to you today, 128 of our towers have been destroyed by either vandals or bandits. To date, we have spent about N8.8bn, by our estimation, to put them back to full and functional use’’, he said.
Commenting on the development, a power sector analyst, Mr Femi Fayomi, said the national grid collapse cannot be discussed without addressing the activities of criminals.
Another crucial factor Fayomi highlighted was the 2024 labour strike, adding that during the strike, electricity workers shut down the national grid in solidarity with protests for minimum wage adjustments.
Fayomi noted that it was a deliberate action that led to prolonged outages that further damaged the grid, exacerbating an already precarious situation.
He said, “While not defending the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) regarding the troubling national grid collapses in 2024, the activities of criminal elements specializing in vandalizing electricity cables were a significant factor contributing to the issue.
“The deliberate destruction of these cables, despite its devastating consequences, has not deterred impoverished citizens from engaging in this form of economic sabotage.
“Additionally, the labour strike of the year exacerbated the problem, as electricity workers deliberately shut down the national grid in solidarity with the minimum wage protests”.
Fayomi also identified obsolete equipment as one of the main challenges confronting the power sector and called on the government to revamp the sector with a ‘new generation of investors’.
He said: “Another critical challenge is the outdated infrastructure maintained by the DISCOs, which has played a major role in the recurring grid failures.
“The need for comprehensive maintenance of obsolete transmission equipment cannot be overstated. Moreover, it is evident that the current investors in the power sector, beneficiaries of the previous privatization exercise, lack the technical expertise and manpower to address the persistent challenges of the power sector effectively.
“To tackle these issues, the government must consider attracting a new generation of investors with the capacity to revamp the sector, initiate poverty eradication programs to discourage young Nigerians from engaging in economic sabotage and invest in modernizing electricity infrastructure to ensure a stable and efficient power supply”.
For Dr Olawale Ariyo, a Lecturer at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, the frequent grid collapses have had a ripple effect, tarnishing Nigeria’s international image and causing business losses.
Ariyo argued that these failures, combined with the migration of industrial investments to neighbouring countries, underscore the urgent need for reform.
“Energy is a critical challenge in Nigeria. The national grid collapse is a plague that has fragmented and retarded the nation’s economic prosperity. Despite sixty-four years of national independence, the electric supply in Nigeria is still not a planned development.
“Statistics have shown that the national grid collapsed 12 times in 2024 and this was not different from the scholarly contribution of Ogunwuyi et al (2024) on the estimated 564 times between 2000 and 2022, while it also collapsed 3 times in 2023.
“However, in 2024, the national grid collapsed 3 times within a week in October. Nigeria generates 12,000 megawatts with an estimated dispatched less than 5,000 megawatts to the projected population of 232 million people in 2024.
“Several factors have been adduced to have been responsible for the grid collapse in Nigeria, such as fire disasters, systemic failure due to poor maintenance, obsolete equipment and low capacity of the grid to power the nation’s electricity supply with attendant effects on the economy.
“For more emphasis, the national grid collapse has endangered our prospective image abroad and retarded the economy. Meanwhile, the nation has decentralized the power supply by reconsidering the electric power supply from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.
“This has empowered the states’ governments like Lagos State, Ekiti State and some other states in the country to decentralize the generation and transmission of power supplies in their states.
“However, must we jump from the frying pan to fire? These steps taken by this present administration aimed at combating hydropower generation of electricity to gas but how effective are these steps?
“We ought to move from hydropower generation to safer climate adaptability and resourceful power generation and transmission such as nuclear and solar power.