To blame him entirely would be a mistake. By the time he arrived, the power sector was already broken, gutted by a 2013 privatisation so deeply compromised that even its architects have begun to flinch.
“We sold DisCos and GenCos to ourselves,” confessed former planning minister ShamsuddeenUsman. That single sentence unplugs the myth of reform: politicians awarded assets to allies, technical qualifications took a backseat, and oversight disappeared behind curtains of self-interest.
The results? DisCos with no financial backbone.GenCos tangled in ownership drama. Over N15 trillion in government bailouts later, over 80 million Nigerians still live in darkness. Even the president has disconnected from the national grid, literally. A N10 billion solar mini-grid now powers Aso Rock, a glowing indictment of a sector so unreliable that the state itself has installed a backup plan.