Tinubu blames past governments’ privatisation policies for Nigeria’s electricity woes

• Tinubu blamed the past administrations for poorly executing the privatisation of the electricity sector

• The President said his government is trying to salvage the situation

• Tinubu took swipes at the opposition, whom he accused of not "believing in the democracy they preach."

According to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the issues plaguing Nigeria's power sector are due to years of poorly executed privatisation policies that failed to yield any results.

"You have leaders who privatised electricity, that's not working. They gave us darkness instead, and we are trying to get ourselves through that. To build a nation of bright hope and joyful people and leave our children with a life worthy of pride."

President Tinubu further took a swipe at the opposition, whom he claims "do not even believe in the democracy they are preaching," and promised not to pay attention to them.

The deteriorating state of the Nigerian power sector has been considered a major failure of the Tinubu administration as the country continues to struggle to generate up to 4,000 megawatts for over 200 million people.

In 2026, the power situation has been the subject of public anger, with supply across the country sharply reduced due to a massive drop in the generation capacity of power generation companies, who have blamed a shortage of gas supply as the reason why thermal plants can no longer operate optimally.

In March 2026, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, apologised to Nigerians for the drop in power supply nationally, which led to protests across several states, including Lagos, Osun, and Edo states.

Adelabu said Nigeria needs at least $100 billion to achieve a stable electricity supply and promised that Nigerians would see tangible improvements in two weeks. The power situation has, however, failed to record any tangible improvements despite Tinubu approving the kick-off of payments for the backlog of government power subsidy, which the power generation companies place at ₦6 trillion, but the Tinubu administration placed at ₦3.3 trillion.

Earlier in 2026, President Tinubu also inaugurated the Grid Asset Management Company Limited (GAMCO) to improve the nation's power generation and transmission capacity in response to the poor performance of the national grid.

The state of the Nigerian power sector will form a major talking point ahead of the 2027 general elections. During his campaign for the presidency in 2023, Tinubu vowed to supply Nigerians with 24 hours power supply and eliminate estimated billing, and should he fail to deliver, he should not be voted for a second term. His administration has so far struggled to deliver on both promises, and it's expected that Nigerians will remind the president and his sponsors to his 2023 statement as he prepares for re-election.