The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Joseph Tegbe as Minister of Power, with the minister-designate vowing to tackle Nigeria’s recurring national grid collapses within his first three months in office.
Speaking during his screening at the Senate, Tegbe disclosed that the nation’s power sector is burdened by debts estimated at about ₦6 trillion, warning that the liquidity crisis is crippling operations across the electricity value chain.
He stressed the need for stricter operational discipline, improved system management and stronger protection of critical power infrastructure, describing vandalism as a serious national security threat.
Tegbe noted that urgent reforms are necessary to stabilise the national grid and boost electricity supply nationwide.
During the session, lawmakers blamed Nigeria’s persistent electricity woes on entrenched interests within the sector, including what they described as a “generator cabal” profiting from the country’s unstable power situation.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio lamented that Nigeria’s transmission network remains too fragile to effectively sustain existing generation capacity without repeated system failures.
The minister-designate’s bold promise comes amid growing public frustration over incessant blackouts and repeated grid collapses across the country.
