Kunle Olubiyo, the President of Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, has said the continued collapse of the National grid which renders the nation in darkness represents the inadequacies of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Olubiyo had said this in reaction to the sixth grid collapse in 2024. The most recent one had occurred at about 6:48 pm on Monday, plunging the entire country into darkness.
While TCN had released a statement, describing the collapse as partial and assuring Nigerians that it has begun restoration, power supply is yet to be restored in sone parts of the country as of the time of filing this report at 10:16 am.
However, this reply did not cut it for Olubiyo who said TCN’s trademark was to pay lip service to the challenges facing the national electricity grid.
He also criticised the TCN for its lack of sincerity in dealing with the problem of continued grid collapses.
In his words;
“The repeated occurrences of System Collapses and challenges of National Grid’s Stability and Reliability are largely due to a lack of sincerity of purposes and paying lips services to a broad spectrum of issues and misplaced priorities over the years by the management of Transmission Company of Nigeria.
“Inadequate investment in Network Improvement Strategies, Dearth of System Protective Scheme/ System Protective Devices, Near Zero.
“Vegetation Control and all other recurring decimal of already identified challenges which have received little or no attention”, he said
The last recorded case of the grid’s collapse was recorded on February 4, July 6, August, and September 19, 2024.
In addition, TCN’s data has revealed that the country’s national grid has collapsed over 227 times in the last 14 years.
This comes amid the increase in electricity tariff in April by 240 percent which has worsened the hardship Nigerians are facing.
Why It Matters
The repeated failures and perceived lack of sincere efforts from the TCN to address these issues have become an additional plight for Nigerians to contend with, in a country seemingly dedicated to frustrating its citizens.
The significant increase in electricity tariffs, coupled with the high cost of PMS worsens the financial burden on Nigerians, especially in times when the grid collapses, further exacerbating the overall hardship in the country.
