'Let's swallow our pride and hand over the power sector to China for 20 years' — Senator Goje opines

During the Senate plenary session on May 6, 2026, Senator Danjuma Goje from Gombe State shared what he believed was the solution to Nigeria's unending power sector failures.

Goje advised the federal government to concession the country's entire power infrastructure to China to manage for 20 years and deliver an uninterrupted power supply. The former governor, now representing Gombe Central Senatorial District, said that it's time for Nigeria to swallow its pride and admit the country's power sector requires more than what international solutions and expertise can offer.

"The best thing to do, in my opinion and in the opinion of some others, is to swallow our pride and call on one of the major, successful, advance nations, preferably China, give hem this project of power in Nigeria to run it for 20 years," Senator Goje said that concessioning the Nigerian power sector to a country like China with a low cost of execution to run the power sector for two decades will guarantee stable power supply, whiich will translate to tangibe development.

Goje made the speech while addressing the incoming Minister of Power, Joseph Tegebe, at his Senate screening. The Senator added that the segmented approach to addressing generation, transmission, and distribution has not yielded any results, and a new approach should be considered.

Although the practicality of Goje's suggestion might have severe challenges, especially as power is a core infrastructure tied to national security, and the government might be reluctant to hand its operation over to a foreign superpower, Nigeria's current abysmal power situation has led many to demand drastic actions.

The incoming Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, during his screening, promised to solve the national grid collapse in his first three months in office.

Joseph Tegbe, 60, was nominated by President Tinubu to replace the former minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, who resigned to pursue his ambition to become the governor of Oyo state.

During his Senate screening, Tegbe was cautioned about the infamous "generator cabal" that Senator Abaribe from Abia state claimed is "the biggest generator marketers in the world" and from whom he should expect "strong resistance" in his attempt to clean up the country's power sector.

Throughout 2026, Nigeria has grappled with a significant drop in generation capacity, which has hovered below 3,000 Megawatts. Several thermal plants across the country are operating below capacity, while some have shut down over what operators blame on a shortage of gas caused by their inability to offset debt to suppliers because the federal government's failure to clear a backlog of subsidies on power supply placed at 6 trillion naira.

President Tinubu's administration reviewed the federal government's debt to power-generating companies, placing the debt at 3 trillion naira, with the payment process already receiving presidential approval.

Nigerians will expectedly be holding Tegbe accountable for his promise to fix the grid collapse. President Tinubu, who also told Nigerians not to return him to office if he fails to deliver uninterrupted power supply, will also be counting on his new Minister of Power to give him tangible results he can share during his re-election campaign.