By Anthony Ebigie
The Nigerian power sector suffered its first major setback in the new year 2026, as reports filtered into various media space yesterday, being January, 23, 2026 as the country recorded its first grid collapse in the new year, forcing stakeholders, and citizens alike to ask the question, if the counting for grid collapses as started for the year 2026.
This question may not be out of place, given the history of technical glitches, which have now come to define the Nigerian power sector, when talking about incidents of grid collapses in Nigeria.
An examination of this challenge in the last two years in terms of figures show that between the year 2024, and just yesterday, being January, 23, 2026, Nigeria recorded 25 grid collapses, 12 in 2024, 12 in 25, and 1 already in 2026, with some saying the counting has just started, despite regular assurances by government that each grid collapse will be the last.
In his new year speech to set the agenda for Nigeria’s power sector in the year 2026, the Ministry of Power in its first press release did quote the minister of power in the sense that suggest that the country has done enough to stabilise its grid in the outgone year, 2025.
The minister in that press statement was quoted to have said, “The outgoing year has been one of focused groundwork and deliberate strides within the power sector. We have confronted complex challenges head-on, from grid resilience to distribution efficiencies”
“Despite the challenges witnessed in the nation’s power sector in the outgone year 2025, a lot of progress was still achieved in ensuring stability in the national grid” however, the incident of another grid collapse, coming just 23 days in the new year, and less than 14 days after the press statement from the ministry of power suggesting stability for the nation’s grid systems contradicts the realities on ground today.
The causes of the incessant grid collapses in Nigeria have been attributed to a combination of technical issues, inadequate maintenance of transmission lines, and fluctuations in generation capacity, but why these challenges appear unresolved despite huge budgetary allocations to the power sector remain largely unanswered.
A breakdown of fiscal appropriation to the ministry of power in the last three years under the president bola tinubu’s government has shown a consistent pattern, which is that for every fiscal year, the allocations for the power ministry consistently increases in an attempt to resolving the underlying issues that have consistently impeded growth in the sector including the consistent grid collapses each year.
A breakdown of the figures in the last three years for instance showed that the power ministry got a cumulative sum of 56.14 billion naira, while that amount increased to 344.097 billion naira by year 2024, with allocation rising to 1.90 trillion in the 2025 budget, a clear indication of the priority placed on the sector by the current administration.
A further breakdown of the figures show that the power sector recovery programme received 810 billion naira from the budget, special intervention project got 269.74 billion naira, while the presidential power initiative (PPI) transmission project received 150 billion all in an attempt to tackle the enormous challenges in the nation’s power sector from specific and targeted approach.
While reacting to the latest development, adeola Samuel, who is the national coordinator, electricity consumers protection forum in an exclusive interview with energynewsstream.com said the tinubu’s administration appear unserious in tackling the challenges that currently defines the nation’s power sector, adeola noted that, what has become even more troubling under the current government borders on fake statistics of growth constantly chunned out to the public that does not reflect the realities and impact on ground.
The consumer rights advocate who condemned excessive borrowing by the present administration without meaningful impact on the power sector, said the cancellation of the Siemens contract by this current government is one of the major drawback for the sector, arguing that at the heart of the Siemens contract, is the roadmap to ending the incessant grid collapses in the country.
On their part, Some lagos residents who have been without power supply in the last twenty four hours while sharing their thoughts on the first grid collapse in the new year with energynewsstream.com said the development is already taking a toll on their small businesses, adetunji sowemimo, a barbing saloon operator, and resident of ifako ijaiye said in the last twenty hours he has not been able to do any hair cut for his customers, due to the blackout occasioned by the latest grid collapse, and his inability to pull funds to buy fuel has compounded his dilemma, adetunji’s situation explains the plight of several small and big business owners across the country who have been left in darkness since the report on the grid collapse broke on friday.
Though the Nigerian government has said that it plans to strengthen and expand the country’s power infrastructure through collaboration with the west african power pool Information, and coordination centre to carryout a synchronised test, linking Nigeria’s grid with the broader west african electricity network as part of broader strategy in the year 2026, including plans to deploy 28 mini-grids in first quarter of 2026 to further guarantee grid stability in the year, it is the hope of many Nigerians that these broader strategies will not end up as strategic rhetorics which has become almost part of the policy process across all tiers of governance in Nigeria, many Nigerians are also calling on president bola tinubu’s foot soldiers as head of ministries, parastatals, and other agencies of government to up their game in the new year to compliment the efforts of president bola tinubu’s renewed hope agenda to drive development at all levels of government including the power sector to make life worth living for citizens.
