Power Minister’s 18-Hour Claim Needs Statistics: More Than 22 LGAs, 20,000 Communities, and Millions Still Lack Reliable Electricity -By Daniel Nduka Okonkwo

Nigeria’s electricity crisis cannot be measured only by megawatts generated, hours of supply in major cities, or the number of new projects commissioned. Behind the official statistics is a far more sobering reality: an investigation found that 22 of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas had gone for years, in some cases decades, without electricity in their headquarters and communities, while the Rural Electrification Agency disclosed in 2025 that more than 20,000 communities across the country remained without electricity. More recently, the REA’s managing director said in August 2026 that more than 85 million Nigerians still lacked reliable access to grid electricity. These figures should be the Minister of Power’s notebook, not merely another set of statistics buried in government reports. Every claim of progress should be measured against how many previously unserved communities have actually received reliable electricity, how many decades-long dark spots have been illuminated, and how many Nigerians have moved from dependence on generators and kerosene to dependable power. Until that gap is confronted honestly, celebrating improvements in supply without measuring who remains in darkness risks presenting partial progress as the full story.

There is an irony at the heart of Nigeria’s electricity crisis. Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe has revealed that some Nigerians asked him to slow down efforts to improve electricity supply because their freezers were now running continuously. He made the remarks on September 16, 2026, during the commissioning of a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University, formerly the University of Abuja, saying some areas that had previously gone for months without electricity were now receiving up to 18 hours of supply daily.

On one level, the statement is encouraging. If communities that previously went for months without electricity are genuinely receiving long hours of supply, that would represent a meaningful improvement in the lives of the affected residents.

But the statement deserves closer scrutiny, and not simply as a reminder of how low the country’s expectations have fallen.

Start with the anecdote itself. Some Nigerians asking the minister to slow down is not evidence of a nationwide improvement. The statement has no names, no locations, and no figures attached to it, making the underlying claim difficult for the public to independently verify. It is a warm and quotable anecdote, but it cannot substitute for region-wide data. An investigative reading of the statement has to ask why the freezer story, rather than a feeder-by-feeder breakdown of supply hours, is what the public is being given.

There is also a problem with the framing. A freezer running continuously is not, by itself, a policy triumph. It is what a functioning electricity system should ordinarily make possible. By presenting basic, reliable electricity service as an achievement worth publicising, the statement risks resetting the bar for what Nigerians regard as normal electricity supply. The real question is not whether a freezer can finally freeze food continuously. The question is whether the electricity system can provide reliable and predictable power to millions of households, businesses, schools, and hospitals.

Nigeria remains at the centre of the global electricity access crisis. The World Bank’s data on electricity access show that Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia together accounted for more than one-third of the world’s population without access to electricity in 2023. The World Bank’s data put Nigeria’s 2023 electricity access deficit at about 86.6 million people.

Against numbers of that size, the fact that some areas are now receiving 18 hours of electricity tells us very little about the country as a whole. Without knowing how many communities have improved, how many customers they represent, and how many remain without comparable service, the 18-hour figure is a data point, not proof that the national system is turning a corner. If the improvement is real and widespread, the Ministry of Power should be able to publish the locations, feeder performance data, duration of the improvement, number of customers affected, and the cost of sustaining the improved supply. That is the kind of information that would allow Nigerians to distinguish between isolated improvement and systemic reform.

There is another important distinction that often gets lost in discussions about electricity, and that is the difference between access and reliability. A household may be connected to the grid but still depend on a generator because electricity is unavailable for long periods, arrives unpredictably, or is interrupted frequently. A business may have a connection but still spend heavily on diesel or petrol to keep operating. A hospital may have electricity but still require backup generators because the grid cannot be relied upon continuously. Nigeria’s electricity crisis is therefore not simply about whether electricity exists. It is about whether it is available, affordable, reliable, and predictable.

The infrastructure challenge remains significant. Tegbe has acknowledged that some electricity infrastructure is more than 40 years old, and he has spoken about the destruction of transmission infrastructure by vandals, including the reported destruction of three transmission towers in Birnin Kebbi, affecting infrastructure serving Kebbi and extending toward the Niger Republic. Tegbe also said the Federal Government had established a joint working arrangement involving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to monitor and protect national electricity assets.

That juxtaposition is part of the real story. On one side, Nigerians are being told about communities receiving up to 18 hours of electricity. On the other hand, critical infrastructure is being damaged, and parts of the network are decades old. The freezer line became the headline. The towers did not.

Then there is the financial structure of the electricity market, and here the numbers are precise enough to be stated plainly. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s fourth quarter 2025 report shows that the Federal Government incurred a subsidy obligation of 418.79 billion naira during the quarter because electricity tariffs were not cost-reflective across the distribution companies. NERC said the subsidy represented 52.30 percent of the total GenCo invoice during the quarter. The figure illustrates the extent to which government support remains necessary to bridge the gap between regulated tariffs and the cost of electricity supplied through the market.

This creates an uncomfortable contradiction. Nigerians complain about high electricity tariffs, yet the government is simultaneously spending hundreds of billions of naira subsidising the sector. Consumers can pay more and still complain about darkness. DisCos can collect revenue and still struggle with liquidity. GenCos can generate electricity and still face payment challenges. Gas suppliers can supply fuel and still face financial pressures. Transmission infrastructure can exist and still fail to deliver electricity efficiently to consumers. Some customers remain unmetered and complain about estimated billing, while regulators continue to sanction distribution companies for violations involving estimated bills. In April 2025, NERC announced sanctions against eight DisCos for failing to comply with monthly energy caps for unmetered customers, imposing more than 628 million naira in penalties and requiring credit adjustments for affected customers.

There is also the question of accountability for the enormous sums that have passed through Nigeria’s power sector over the years. Successive administrations have announced projects, interventions, and reforms intended to increase generation capacity, strengthen transmission, and expand distribution. Yet Nigerians continue to ask why decades of spending have not produced a power system capable of consistently meeting the country’s basic needs.

The May 2026 conviction and subsequent sentencing of former Minister of Power Saleh Mamman demonstrated that corruption allegations surrounding major power projects can reach the highest levels of government. Mamman was convicted by the Federal High Court in Abuja on 12 counts involving the laundering of 33.8 billion naira linked to funds for major hydroelectric projects, including Mambilla and Zungeru. Justice James Omotosho sentenced him to a total of 75 years imprisonment, with the sentences running consecutively, and he was subsequently arrested by the EFCC after the judgment and taken into custody.

That case should not be used to declare every past electricity investment fraudulent, nor should allegations surrounding individual projects be treated as facts without evidence and due process. But it reinforces a legitimate public-interest question. How much has Nigeria spent on electricity infrastructure, what was promised, what was delivered, what failed, and who was held accountable when projects did not achieve their stated objectives? Against that history, a minister’s anecdote about improved electricity supply should invite more scrutiny, not less.

The distribution companies also remain central to the story, because they sit closest to consumers. They bill customers, they collect payments, they distribute electricity, and they are responsible for significant portions of the customer experience. Data circulated in discussions of the sector have portrayed major differences in remittance performance among DisCos, with Eko, Ikeja, and Abuja often presented as stronger performers and Kaduna, Kano, and Jos among weaker performers. However, those specific 2024 and 2025 percentages require careful verification against NERC’s underlying market remittance datasets before they can be published as definitive figures. What is independently established is that NERC continues to monitor and sanction DisCos over market and consumer protection obligations, while its quarterly reports document the financial imbalance within the electricity market. That distinction matters because Nigeria cannot build a reliable electricity system simply by announcing more generation projects. Electricity must move through transmission infrastructure, reach distribution networks, and ultimately reach paying customers who can trust what they are billed.

Then there is the generator economy, perhaps the clearest illustration of how unreliable grid electricity affects everyday economic life. For millions of Nigerians, electricity from the grid is only one part of the energy equation. When public electricity fails, households and businesses turn to petrol- and diesel-powered generators. The World Bank has previously described Nigeria’s dependence on gasoline and diesel generators as a major feature of the country’s electricity landscape, noting that about 90 million Nigerians lacked access to electricity under the data available at the time.

This creates a form of double payment. Consumers pay electricity bills when power is supplied, then spend additional money on fuel, maintenance, and repairs when the grid fails. Businesses factor generator costs into the prices of goods and services. Manufacturers face higher operating costs. Small businesses struggle to remain competitive. The consequences extend beyond inconvenience. Unreliable electricity affects productivity, education, healthcare, investment, and employment. A business that cannot depend on power cannot plan its operations with confidence. A university cannot run laboratories efficiently without dependable electricity. A hospital cannot afford to treat power interruptions as a normal operating condition.

This is why the 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project commissioned at Yakubu Gowon University matters. Projects of this nature can provide targeted relief and demonstrate how alternative energy sources can supplement the national grid. They can also reduce dependence on generators in specific institutions and communities. These achievements should not be dismissed. But neither should they be mistaken for the end of the crisis, and neither should a single unverifiable anecdote be allowed to stand in for the systemic data the public actually needs.

Nigeria needs to move from projects to systems. The country needs to know how many megawatts are actually available at any given time, how much electricity is being generated, how much is being transmitted, how much reaches distribution companies, how much is delivered to consumers, how many hours customers receive on individual feeders, how much is lost, how much is collected, and how much remains unpaid. It also needs transparent answers about the condition of the transmission network, gas supply, distribution infrastructure, metering, vandalism, market subsidies, and outstanding debts.

This is where Nigeria’s current power story becomes particularly complicated. There are signs of progress in some places. There are also structural weaknesses that cannot be solved by isolated projects or individual success stories. The country may genuinely be seeing more light in some communities. But millions remain without access to electricity, while millions more have connections that do not guarantee a reliable supply. That is the uncomfortable contradiction Nigerians now face.

The Ministry of Power should therefore publish the evidence behind the improvements being reported. If some communities have moved from months without electricity to as much as 18 hours daily, Nigerians should know where those communities are, which feeders serve them, how long the improvement has lasted, how many customers are benefiting, and what measures are being used to sustain it. That is how public confidence is built. Not through slogans. Not through isolated anecdotes. Not through political arguments. Through data.

The Nigerian electricity consumer has heard promises for decades. What Nigerians need now is not simply another announcement of improvement, but a system that can demonstrate improvement consistently and transparently.

A freezer is supposed to freeze. A light is supposed to illuminate. A factory is supposed to operate. A hospital is supposed to have dependable electricity. A university is supposed to conduct research without constantly worrying about whether the lights will go out. Reliable electricity should be ordinary. It should not be extraordinary enough for a minister to recount that citizens are asking him to slow down because their freezers are finally working, and it should not be treated as proof of national progress simply because it makes for a good quote.

Nigeria does not merely need more moments of light. It needs a power system that makes darkness the exception rather than the organising principle of everyday life, and it needs a Ministry of Power willing to be judged on data rather than anecdote.

The country is seeing light in some places. But the size of the electricity access deficit, the fragility of the grid, the financial burden of the market, ageing infrastructure, continuing vandalism, and the long history of failed or disputed investments show why it would be premature to declare victory. The minister’s freezer story should therefore be treated as an opening claim to be verified, not a closing argument to be applauded.

The real measure of reform is not whether Nigerians occasionally see 18 hours of electricity. It is whether they can confidently expect it tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And next month. And next year.

Nigeria’s electricity story remains one of promising pockets of progress inside a crisis that is still far too deep to declare solved. A minister’s anecdote, however warm, is not a substitute for the evidence that would prove it.

Daniel Nduka Okonkwo is an investigative journalist, human rights advocate, and publisher, and the founder of Profiles International Human Rights Advocate, PIHRA. His work focuses on governance, accountability, and the protection of fundamental rights across Nigeria and Africa. His reporting has appeared in Vanguard, Daily Trust, Sahara Reporters, African Defence Forum, Opinion Nigeria, and Daily Intel, among others.

Read more of his work on the PIHRA blog: https://profilesinternationalhumanrightsadv.blogspot.com
For tips, feedback, or collaboration, reach him at dan.okonkwo.73@gmail.com.