The Nigeria Youth Forum (NYF) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to revoke the licences of underperforming electricity distribution companies (DisCos) and invite credible investors with the technical capacity and financial credibility to rescue the country’s ailing power sector.
This call comes amid growing public dissatisfaction over the persistent inefficiencies in Nigeria’s electricity supply and the widely criticized privatization model that, according to stakeholders, has failed to deliver value for money to the Nigerian populace.
Recall that the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had said lack of investments by DisCos was frustrating the government’s reforms.
Speaking during a press briefing on Friday, the National President of NYF, Comrade Toriah Olajide Filani, expressed deep concern over the sector’s dismal output.
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He said the total electricity supplied to Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people is significantly lower than the power supply allocated to a single international airport in Europe.
Filani said, “Compare the Amsterdam International Airport with Nigeria as a whole. The power available at that airport alone surpasses Nigeria’s entire national grid output.
“This reflects poorly on our leadership and infrastructure planning. When you also look at Jeddah International Airport and compare it to the Nigerian situation, you cannot help but feel disheartened. Nigeria claims to be the giant of Africa, yet its power generation capacity tells a different story.”
He further stated that although Nigeria currently generates about 6,000 megawatts of electricity, only about 5,000 megawatts can be distributed due to obsolete infrastructure and the failure of DisCos to invest in essential distribution materials.
This bottleneck, according to the Forum, continues to cripple the nation’s power delivery system and frustrates economic growth.
The Forum maintained that if the country fails to address the crisis in the power sector now, it might miss its last chance to salvage the situation, adding that continuous self-deception will only deepen the suffering of Nigerians under a system that is no longer sustainable.
“The time for power sector reform is now or never. We cannot continue to deceive ourselves. If we can’t fix electricity now under the new Electricity Act and investment roadmap, then we may never get it right again,” Filani declared.
Beyond criticism, the Forum recommended a strategic and solution-driven approach to resolving the crisis. It emphasized the need for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to enforce a performance-based regulatory framework that holds DisCos accountable to clear benchmarks in customer service, infrastructure investment, and energy distribution efficiency.
According to the group, licences should be subjected to periodic reviews, and any operator found wanting should be replaced by more competent and transparent investors.
The NYF also proposed the creation of a DisCo Recovery Task Force, mandated to audit past investments and operational records of distribution companies since privatization.
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