Tinubu’s Government Breaking from Past Failures of Buhari, Others in Power Sector – Minister

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has accused previous administrations of failing to make meaningful progress in Nigeria’s power sector, stating that past leaders only paid lip service to resolving the industry’s challenges.

Speaking during a meeting with a World Bank delegation at his office in Abuja, Adelabu said the neglect by former presidents is largely responsible for the dire state of the country’s electricity supply. He emphasised that President Bola Tinubu has shown a clear commitment to reversing the trend and giving the sector the urgent attention it requires.

Adelabu praised development partners, especially the World Bank, for their consistent support in areas including power generation, transmission, distribution, and renewable energy. He stressed that the current administration is determined to break from the past by taking bold and innovative steps.

“We actually have a past that we are not proud of. Over the years, we have only been paying lip service to transforming the power sector but have not worked the talk. Previous administrations kept on doing the same thing repeatedly, and you cannot get different results that way,” he said in a statement released by his media adviser, Bolaji Tunji.

The minister decried years of neglect of key infrastructure such as transmission lines and transformers, which he said have now deteriorated to critical levels. He pointed out that lack of maintenance, widespread vandalism, and poor metering remain major obstacles to reliable power delivery.

“How will you explain the kind of infrastructure we put together for our transmission network across the country? Thousands of kilometres of power lines, transformers that have not been maintained for decades. It’s unrealistic to expect stability under such conditions,” he said.

He also highlighted the mismatch between electricity demand and metering coverage, noting that only six million out of over 12 million power consumers are metered, making it difficult to sustain a healthy industry.

Adelabu compared historical and recent progress in power generation, noting that while it took Nigeria 40 years to grow from 2,000 megawatts in 1984 to 4,000 megawatts, the current administration has already raised output to 5,800 megawatts in just over a year.

He was particularly critical of the Buhari administration’s handling of the Siemens power deal signed in 2019, which he said remained stagnant until President Tinubu took office in 2023. He revealed that the pilot phase of the Siemens project is now nearing completion, less than two years into the current administration.

Adelabu urged the World Bank to maintain its support for the Tinubu government’s power sector initiatives, reaffirming the administration’s resolve to deliver a stable and efficient electricity supply. He noted that no meaningful development can occur in sectors such as agriculture, transportation, education, or health without reliable power, and reiterated that President Tinubu is fully backing all efforts to transform the sector.