Atiku: Tinubu Finally Embraces My 21-Year-Old Blueprint to Fix Nigeria’s Power Crisis

Former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of belatedly adopting a power-sector strategy he says he championed more than two decades ago.

Atiku made the claim through his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, in a statement issued on Sunday, following comments by the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, that Nigeria can no longer rely solely on large, centralised power plants to meet the country’s electricity needs.

According to Atiku, the minister’s position amounts to a belated endorsement of the decentralised electricity generation model he had advocated during his time as Vice President under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“This has been my position for over two decades,” Atiku said.

The ADC presidential candidate recalled that while serving as Vice President, he consistently urged the Obasanjo administration to diversify and decentralise electricity generation by taking advantage of Nigeria’s abundant energy resources, including hydroelectric power, solar energy and gas.

Atiku argued that a decentralised approach would make it possible to generate electricity closer to communities and consumers while reducing the country’s dependence on large, centralised power plants.

“It should not take a government three years in office to discover what was obvious more than two decades ago,” he said.

The former Vice President also criticised the Tinubu administration over electricity tariffs, arguing that the government increased tariffs before implementing the reforms needed to improve electricity supply.

“A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more,” Atiku said.

He maintained that the administration had taken the opposite approach by increasing tariffs while only now beginning to consider the structural reforms required to improve power generation and supply.

The comments come amid continued debate over how best to address Nigeria’s longstanding electricity challenges, with policymakers increasingly examining alternative and decentralised power-generation models.

Atiku’s position also adds a political dimension to the ongoing power-sector debate as the former Vice President prepares to contest the 2027 presidential election under the platform of the ADC.

The former Vice President has continued to argue that Nigeria’s electricity crisis requires a fundamental restructuring of the power sector rather than isolated interventions, insisting that the country must fully exploit its diverse energy resources to achieve reliable and affordable electricity.