KEY POINTS
- The Senate unanimously confirmed Tegbe as Nigeria’s new minister of power Wednesday afternoon.
- Tegbe promised grid stabilization and a public performance dashboard within his first 100 days.
- Senate President Akpabio alleged a “generator cabal” is actively profiting from Nigeria’s broken power supply.
Nigeria’s Senate confirmed Olasunkanmi Tegbe as minister of power on Wednesday. Lawmakers charged him to confront the country’s electricity crisis head-on, from recurring grid collapse to a N6 trillion liquidity burden pressing down on the entire sector. Senate President Godswill Akpabio presided over the session. Tegbe fielded tough, pointed questions on weak transmission, inadequate gas supply and infrastructure under constant attack.
A sector held hostage by systemic failure
Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno North) set the tone early. He described repeated grid collapses as a major obstacle to Nigeria’s industrialization push. He also flagged a security dimension: insurgent attacks in the Northeast had knocked out transmission infrastructure and left Maiduguri dependent on alternative power sources.
Tegbe was direct. “Grid collapse is not an accident; it is a symptom of a system problem,” he told the chamber. He pledged tighter operational discipline, stronger frequency management and improved gas supply to power generation companies.
Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro (Benue South) pressed Tegbe on the liquidity crisis, now estimated at about N6 trillion. The debt has shut out private investment and weakened every link in the value chain. Tegbe conceded the financial model is broken. He promised market-reflective tariffs while pledging to shield vulnerable consumers from the full impact.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) hit out at the sector’s fragmented structure, arguing that poorly coordinated split ownership across generation, transmission and distribution had created costly inefficiencies. Tegbe pledged closer integration across the value chain as a core priority.
Tegbe cited a milestone on metering: one million units pushed out in the past year. He committed to expanding that drive to cut estimated billing and stabilize revenue. On rural access, Senator Ekong Samson (Akwa Ibom South) raised concerns about communities still without power. Tegbe said mini-grids and solar solutions would close the gap.
A 100-day clock and a cabal to confront
Tegbe drew his own line. He promised grid stabilization and a live public performance dashboard within 100 days.
“If you don’t see results in three months, you won’t see them in six months,” he said.
Akpabio went a step further. He alleged that a “generator cabal” profits directly from Nigeria’s broken power supply and has no interest in seeing it fixed. “We will confront such interests,” he said.
The Senate confirmed Tegbe unanimously. Lawmakers called it a pivotal moment. Nigeria’s power sector, they said, needed real results, not another minister who ran out the clock.
