Tinubu Has Finally Adopted My 2-Decade-Old Power Blueprint, Atiku Claims

Former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that the President Bola Tinubu administration has only now embraced an electricity policy direction he advocated more than two decades ago, arguing that the government spent nearly three years worsening Nigeria’s power crisis before arriving at what he described as the right solution.

The claim was contained in a press statement issued on Sunday, July 26, 2026, by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, who signed and released the statement on behalf of the former vice president.

Atiku said the recent admission by the Minister of Power that Nigeria could no longer rely solely on large, centralised power plants amounted to “a belated endorsement” of the decentralised electricity generation model he had championed over 20 years ago.

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

He criticised the Tinubu administration for increasing electricity tariffs before carrying out the structural reforms needed to improve 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,” he stated.

The former vice president recalled that during his tenure under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he consistently advocated decentralising electricity generation by harnessing Nigeria’s diverse energy resources, including hydroelectric dams, solar power, gas and other viable sources.

He disclosed that his disagreement with the federal government’s power policy at the time was so fundamental that he declined to chair the Power Sector Reform Committee despite being appointed by President Obasanjo.

“This has been my position for over two decades. When President Obasanjo established the Power Sector Reform Committee based primarily on gas-fired generation, I was appointed Chairman. However, because I fundamentally disagreed with the policy direction, I declined to preside over the committee. I believed then, as I do now, that Nigeria’s electricity future lay in a diversified and decentralised energy mix—not an overdependence on a single source.

“Unfortunately, billions of dollars contributed by the Federal Government, states and local governments were committed to that approach, yet the expected results never materialised. Contracts were awarded, huge sums were paid upfront, but much of the promised work was never done. The National Assembly subsequently investigated the power sector reforms and held President Obasanjo accountable for the outcome. I was never invited by the investigators because I had declined to chair the committee despite being formally appointed. My position has remained consistent: Nigeria must diversify its sources of electricity generation if we are to achieve stable, affordable and sustainable power,” Atiku said.

According to him, he reaffirmed the same position during an interview with ARISE News in 2022 and also made it a major component 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. Today, the Tinubu administration is merely acknowledging what I proposed years ago,” he said.

Atiku argued that affordable and reliable electricity remains the foundation for industrialisation, job creation, economic growth and national competitiveness.

“It is regrettable that rather than implementing coherent reforms, this government has spent nearly three years experimenting with the livelihoods of Nigerians. The result has been higher electricity tariffs, struggling businesses, collapsing manufacturers and households paying more for less power,” he stated.

He added, “The greatest tragedy is not that this government has finally embraced the right idea. The tragedy is that it took three years of policy drift, higher tariffs and prolonged darkness to discover what could have transformed Nigeria’s power sector more than two decades ago.”

The former vice president maintained that an ADC administration under his leadership would pursue a diversified and decentralised electricity generation strategy driven by hydro, gas, solar and other viable energy sources. He said such an approach would also involve expanding transmission infrastructure, strengthening distribution networks and encouraging private sector participation to guarantee stable and affordable electricity across the country.

“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,” Atiku said.