We are barely three months into 2025 and the nation has already suffered a number of power outages due to the total or partial collapse of the National Grid.

The latest one took place last Friday, March 7 when the National Grid suffered a ‘system outage’ which saw power generation suddenly dropping below 1,000MW at 2 pm from about 4,000MW the hours before; plunging some parts of the country, especially Lagos, into darkness.

Ironically Friday’s incident happened barely a few days after the Federal Government celebrated what it called the historic rise in power generation to 6,000MW. Incidentally, 12 times last year the world’s most populated black nation suffered complete blackouts due to the collapse of the nation’s National Grid.

Despite the best efforts of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to explain reasons for the national embarrassment, the persisting epileptic electric power supply has had adverse effects on the economy.

Unfortunately, that again has been playing out in Nigeria endowed with dependable, natural sources of power such as the sun, wind, water, coal and of course, masses of biodegradable wastes.

What that scandalous spectacle portrays is the missing link of creative, resourceful and visionary political leadership. That querulous issue came up recently when on Wednesday, December 11; the national grid collapsed again plunging large swaths of the country into darkness.

Incidentally, within one week in October, the grid collapsed three times. Before then power generation had dropped to as low as 5,060 Megawatts (MW) on September 9, 2024.

That was a significant drop from 5,313 MW a week before, which the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu had gleefully celebrated as the highest in three years.

But it was short lived. In fact, the highest all-time peak that was ever generated was 5,377 MW on September 1, 2020. But the inexcusable situation characterised by frequent power outages, worsened under the President Bola Tinubu-led government has again triggered off several burning questions.

For instance, how do we explain the painful fact that Nigeria, home to the largest population of 218.5 million (2022) on the African continent, and having virtually most of the sources of power generation, is ranked fifth behind four other countries.

How do we explain the painful fact that Nigeria, home to the largest population of 218.5 million (2022) on the African continent, and having virtually most of the sources of power generation, is ranked fifth behind four other countries

These include South Africa, having a population of 59.89 million (2020) but has a capacity of 63,410 MW, Egypt, with 111 million people boasting of 59,250 MW and Algeria with a population of 44.9 million generating 21,710 MW.

In fact, credible answers to this recurring ugly decimal of pain-inflicting leadership has become imperative because of the critical role steady electric power supply plays, in our lives, as individuals, communities and countries.

Electricity has over the centuries upgraded our quality of life, from access to quality and nutritious food, potable water, bathing, housing, clothing, transportation.

The others are education, healthcare delivery and entertainment. Worrisome still, is that of the key role it plays within the productive activities of different countries, Nigeria inclusive.

That is especially so in the value chain of the food industry; from production through processing to preservation and marketing of the products. It also significantly impacts on the activities of the small and medium scale enterprises and the bigger paradigm shift of the large scale manufacturing companies.

Unfortunately, the freaky power outages and inadequate supply of electricity have been highlighted as part of the reasons for the exit of some notable multinational manufacturing companies, numbering over 16 since May 29, 2023.

Some of them include tech start-ups such as Lazarpay, Microsoft, as well as industry giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Proctor and Gamble while in the oil industry, Exxon, Shell, TotalEnergies have called it quits.

With Unilever, Equinox, Bayer and GSK gone, massive job losses have had their telling effects on the economy, worsening the hunger in the land.

Not left out are the local manufacturing companies, which the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) claims is responsible for the closing down of as many as 767 of them over the past 18 months according to the Association.

Such a scary economic situation calls for urgent intervention. On the best way forward, though the Electoral Act 2023 constitutional amendment restored the authority of state governments to generate electric power, to the pre-1999 level the conflicts persist.

That has to do with the provisions of the state and the federal oversight. This definitely is one of the crooked areas to be smoothed out by the National Assembly, either through a constitutional review or by its total overhaul.

Given the instance of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MILHOUSE to establish a 66 MW coal power plant, back in November 2017 the dynamics of power generation in Nigeria has to shift, away from the overbearing influence of the Federal Government.

With that fully in place, attention will be focused on alternative sources of power generation deploying natural resources such as wind, hydropower, solar, biomass and geothermal as has been done in the United States (US).

That is according to the Energy Information Administration. If China, which boasts of the highest power generation through the Three Gorges Dam, could provide 103,647 billion kilowatts; Nigeria should take a cue from that. The time for sustainable solutions to the epileptic power supply is now. (New Telegraph Editorial)