Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has blamed previous governments for the persistent failures in Nigeria’s electricity supply, saying their inability to implement meaningful reforms led to the current challenges.
In a statement issued by his media aide, Bolaji Tunji, Adelabu stated that the current administration is taking a different and more effective approach to fixing the power sector’s long-standing problems.
His remarks follow a warning by electricity generation companies (GenCos) about a looming nationwide shutdown due to a N4 trillion debt owed by the Federal Government. Of that amount, N2 trillion covers electricity supplied in 2024, under Adelabu’s watch, while N1.9 trillion is legacy debt.
Despite this, Adelabu insisted that the root of the crisis lies in years of neglect, particularly in maintaining infrastructure and metering. He noted that critical assets like power lines and transformers have been left to deteriorate, while over half of electricity consumers remain unmetered.
“We’ve had a past we can’t be proud of. For too long, reforms were just lip service. You can’t repeat the same actions and expect different results,” he said. “We’re now focused on breaking away from that cycle.”
He also criticised the lack of maintenance culture and vandalism of infrastructure, which continue to undermine the country’s efforts toward stable electricity.
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