If this report that Ghana plans to export electricity to Nigeria materialises, Nigerians should not simply celebrate another source of power. We should ask ourselves a deeply uncomfortable question:
How did Africa’s largest economy, sitting on some of the continent’s largest natural gas reserves, reach the point where we may have to look to Ghana for additional electricity?
There is nothing wrong with regional electricity trading. Countries all over the world buy and sell power across borders, and Nigeria itself has historically exported electricity to neighbouring countries.
That is not the issue.
The embarrassment is that Nigeria still cannot generate, transmit and reliably distribute anywhere near the electricity required by its enormous population and economy.
We have gas.
We have hydro resources.
We have sunlight.
We have coal.
We have private capital looking for viable investments.
We have engineers and technical expertise.
We have a population of more than 200 million people creating one of Africa’s biggest potential electricity markets.
So why are millions of Nigerian homes and businesses still dependent on generators, inverters, batteries and solar systems just to achieve something as elementary as dependable electricity?
At this stage, Nigerians are entitled to judge governments by outcomes rather than promises.
And increasingly, the evidence suggests that this government has not demonstrated the capacity, urgency or strategy required to expand Nigeria’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure at the scale the country desperately needs.
This should be a source of national shame and profound disappointment.
Electricity is not a luxury.
Without reliable electricity, there can be no serious industrialisation. Manufacturing remains expensive. SMEs struggle. Foreign investors hesitate. Hospitals operate generators. Businesses transfer energy costs to consumers. Nigerian products become less competitive, and young entrepreneurs spend scarce capital generating their own electricity before they have produced a single product.
Nigeria cannot continue like this.
A country blessed with enormous natural gas resources should be discussing how to produce tens of thousands of additional megawatts, not normalising perpetual electricity scarcity.
President Tinubu’s administration still has an opportunity to prove otherwise. But that proof cannot come from speeches, targets or reforms that ordinary Nigerians cannot feel.
The proof must come when the lights stay on.
The proof must come when factories can operate without diesel generators.
The proof must come when electricity generation and transmission capacity rise dramatically.
The proof must come when a Nigerian entrepreneur can start a business without first becoming his own electricity company.
Until then, we must call the situation what it is:
SHAMEFUL. DISAPPOINTING. AND COMPLETELY UNWORTHY OF NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL.
Nigeria does not lack energy resources.
Nigeria lacks the leadership capacity to turn those resources into abundant electricity.
And after decades of excuses, Nigerians should no longer accept darkness as destiny.
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE
Independent. Uncompromising.
Nigeria First.
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