The Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2027 election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that the Federal Government's latest position on electricity reform mirrors a policy direction he proposed more than two decades ago.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Saturday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the recent remarks by the Minister of Power on the need to move beyond reliance on large, centralised power plants amounted to a validation of his long-standing advocacy for decentralised electricity generation.
According to the former Vice President, it took the Tinubu administration nearly three years to embrace an idea he first canvassed over 21 years ago, accusing the government of worsening the nation's electricity challenges through poor planning and policy inconsistency.
He argued that rather than embarking on structural reforms, the administration chose to increase electricity tariffs while millions of Nigerians continued to grapple with poor power supply.
"A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more. Unfortunately, this administration has done the exact opposite—raising tariffs first and only now beginning to think about the reforms required to justify those increases," Atiku said.
The former Vice President recalled that while serving under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, he consistently advocated a diversified electricity generation model driven by hydro, gas, solar and other renewable energy sources instead of relying mainly on gas-fired plants.
He disclosed that although he was appointed to chair the Power Sector Reform Committee set up by the Obasanjo administration, he declined the role because he disagreed with its policy direction, insisting that Nigeria's power future lay in a decentralised energy mix.
Atiku maintained that reliable and affordable electricity remains critical to industrialisation, job creation and economic growth, adding that an ADC-led administration would prioritise diversified power generation, strengthen transmission and distribution infrastructure, and encourage greater private sector participation to guarantee stable electricity supply across the country.
He added, "Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of ideas. It suffers from a shortage of leaders willing to act on the right ideas at the right time. It is never too late to embrace the right policy, but Nigerians should never have had to pay the price for a government that spent three years learning what should have guided its actions from day one."
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