'I will fix the national grid in three months' — New Power Minister Tegbe promises

During his Senate confirmation hearing on May 6, 2026, the incoming Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, promised to fix the national grid collapse within his first three months in office.

While facing questions from Senators on how he intends to address the challenges of the Nigerian power sector, which has so far yielded little result despite billions of naira in investment across several administrations, Tegbe promised to deploy his wealth of experience to carry out key reforms to clean up the sector.

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.

Tegbe, who graduated from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, with a first-class degree in Civil Engineering in 1988, will be aiming to use his wealth of experience across the energy, finance, and investment sectors to fix Nigeria's power sector, which so far has defied solutions.

Before his appointment, Tegbe was serving as the Director-General and Global Liaison of the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP), a results-oriented institution focused on delivering impactful economic outcomes. Like his predecessor, he also has a strong background in finance, having occupied senior leadership positions across two decades in the global tax company KPMG.

He is also an alumnus of Lagos Business School, Nigeria; INSEAD, France; Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School.

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.

Although it's uncertain whether Nigeria indeed have a "generator cabal" that has truncated successive efforts to reform the power sector, Tegbe will be stepping into office at a time when the country is facing a power crisis.

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.

With the general election scheduled for January 2027, Joseph Tegbe will be hoping to have a positive time as Minister of Power, especially as his predecessor left office, leaving behind a struggling power sector that forced Nigerians to take to the streets to protest the blackout.

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.