Atiku Claims Tinubu Finally Embraced His 20-Year-Old Vision for Nigeria's Power Sector
- Atiku Abubakar said the Tinubu administration has only now arrived at a power sector policy he championed over 20 years ago
- The former Vice President said he once turned down chairmanship of Obasanjo's Power Sector Reform Committee over a policy disagreement
- Atiku also criticised the federal government for raising electricity tariffs before fixing the underlying problems
Abuja, FCT - Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has accused the Tinubu administration of spending nearly three years worsening Nigeria's electricity crisis before finally landing on a policy direction he first proposed more than two decades ago.
In a statement dated Sunday, July 26 and issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the power minister's recent admission that Nigeria cannot rely solely on large, centralised power plants amounts to a long-overdue endorsement of decentralised electricity generation, a position he had consistently held since his time as Vice President.
Source: Facebook
"It should not take a government three years in office to discover what was obvious more than two decades ago," Atiku said.
Tariff Hikes Before Reforms
Atiku argued that a responsible government would have fixed structural problems in the power sector before asking citizens to pay more. He said the Tinubu administration did the opposite, raising electricity tariffs first while Nigerians sank deeper into darkness.
"A government that thinks before it acts would have fixed the system before asking citizens to pay more," he said.
He recalled that during President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, he repeatedly pushed for a diversified electricity generation model drawing on hydroelectric, solar, gas and other energy sources. His conviction ran so deep that when Obasanjo named him chairman of the Power Sector Reform Committee, which was built around a gas-focused strategy, he refused to lead it.
"Because I fundamentally disagreed with the policy direction, I declined to preside over the committee," Atiku said, adding that billions of dollars from federal, state and local governments were subsequently committed to that approach with little to show for it.
He noted that the National Assembly later investigated the reforms and held Obasanjo accountable, but he was never summoned because his refusal to chair the committee was already on record.
Atiku's Long-Standing Policy Position on Nigeria's Power
The former vice president said he publicly restated his support for decentralised power generation during an ARISE News interview in 2022 and made it a centrepiece of his presidential campaigns from 2007 through 2023.
"For more than two decades, I have consistently argued that Nigeria's overdependence on a centralised generation system was economically unsustainable and technically inefficient," he said.
Atiku described affordable and reliable electricity as the foundation of industrialisation, job creation and economic growth, and said the cost of the administration's slow learning curve had fallen squarely on Nigerian businesses and households paying more for less power.
He said an ADC government under his leadership would pursue a diversified energy mix spanning hydro, gas and solar, while expanding transmission infrastructure, strengthening distribution networks and opening the sector to greater private investment.
"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," he said.
Nigeria Will Not Achieve Prosperity through Borrowing - Atiku
In another report, Atiku said Nigeria will never achieve prosperity through borrowing, importing goods or raising taxes. He argued that the country's only path forward is to produce its own food, manufacture its own goods and build an export economy.
The former vice president said the economic suffering many Nigerians now face is not simply a product of global conditions but the direct result of decades of policy choices that favoured consumption over production.
Source: Legit.ng
