By Abiola Olawale
Nigerians have been thrown into a nationwide blackout as the national grid has suffered another setback on Tuesday, prompting calls on President Bola Tinubu to sack his Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu.
The development which was confirmed in a press statement posted on the official X handle of the national grid has triggered integrity concerns as some Nigerians have asked either the Minister of power to either resign or Tinubu should simply ease “ him out for sheer incompetence and subjecting Nigerians to misery and sufferings.”
Said one critic on Facebook: “ Adelabu has gone down in history as the worse minister of Power in Nigeria’s history. The President better ask him to either resign or he should be sacked outrughtly. If he cannot address this simple, basic issue then he is simply incompetent.”
In its official X handle, the body wrote: “BREAKING: National Grid suffers another setback. Restoration soon!“, @NationalGridNg tweeted around 3 PM on Tuesday.
The New Diplomat reports that this is the 9th time the national grid will collapse in 2024 alone.
This is also the latest after the grid collapsed three times in one week in October.
Several Nigerians have expressed their frustrations about the repeated national grid collapse, as businesses, homes, and critical infrastructure continue to be affected by the nation’s unreliable electricity supply.
It would be recalled that the national grid collapsed on October 17, 2024. Also, the national grid collapsed on October 15, 2024. This came hours after the national grid had collapsed on October 14, 2024.
Also, the national grid collapsed on August 5, 2024.
The country was also plunged into darkness due to the grid failure on 6 July 2024.
Also, the country suffered another nationwide blackout on March 28. On April 14, the nation’s electricity grid experienced another system collapse.
The national electricity grid, on February 4, collapsed for the first time in 2024.
Reacting to the persistent collapse, the minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu who spoke with the press in October said the grid collapses are almost inevitable in Nigeria given the deplorable state of the country’s power infrastructure.
The minister also said there is a need to have power grids in different regions or states to put an end to incessant grid collapses.
According to him, having multiple power grids in each region and state would ensure stability. He noted that the decentralisation of the power sector would help the plan to build grids in each region, saying this was made possible by the Electricity Act signed by President Bola Tinubu in 2023.
But some experts maintain that the minister’s explanation is a lame excuse “ because he has been in office for more than a year now and he didn’t carry out any strategic audit and plan IMMEDIATELY he assumed office, which ought to be a policy plan, which is why we are where we are: darkness.”
