Frustrated Nigerians urge Tinubu to dismiss Power Minister Adelabu after 11-day blackout
On Monday, October 28, many Nigerians called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remove Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, as an extended blackout continues in Northern Nigeria for 11 days.
Kunle Olubiyo, President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, and Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, shared their concerns in interviews with DAILY POST. Their remarks follow a recent reshuffle of Tinubu’s cabinet due to ongoing issues with the national power grid.
Since October 21, 2024, the North East and North West regions, which cover at least 15 states, have been in darkness after insurgents damaged the Shiroro-Kaduna transmission line.
President Tinubu has urged the Ministry of Power and relevant agencies to restore electricity, but as of now, the lights are still out. Adelabu stated that power would be back within five days, despite previous assurances from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that temporary power would be restored soon.
Olubiyo expressed that the blackout is a “national embarrassment,” calling for an emergency in the power sector and suggesting the national grid be divided into ten industrial hubs for better efficiency. He criticized the current system, saying, “Over 10 days without power supply in the Northern region constitutes a declaration of a state of emergency in the sector.”
Eze Onyekpere echoed these sentiments, stating that the outage could have been prevented with a quicker response from the government. He attributed the problems to a general failure of security measures and the incompetence of the Minister of Power.
Meanwhile, Tunji Bolaji, a spokesperson for Adelabu, assured that the federal government is actively working to restore power and that engineers are on-site. He emphasized the need for communities to protect government infrastructure from vandalism, highlighting the challenges posed by rising fuel prices and inflation in the region.
As citizens in Kaduna and other Northern states continue to struggle with the blackout and its economic impact, the call for accountability grows stronger.
