Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, is set to exit President Bola Tinubu’s administration without meeting the 6,000-megawatt electricity supply target.
This follows a directive by President Tinubu requiring all ministers, aides, and political appointees intending to contest in the 2027 general elections to resign on or before March 31, 2026, in line with the provisions of the recently enacted Electoral Act.
Adelabu is among those affected, having openly declared his intention to run for the governorship position in Oyo State. With the directive in place, he now has less than two weeks to step down from his role.
Efforts to reach his spokesperson, Bolaji Tunji, for comments were unsuccessful as calls and messages had not been responded to at the time of filing this report.
However, a credible source within the Ministry of Power confirmed that the minister is expected to resign ahead of the stipulated deadline.
“He (Adelabu) is ready to bow out; I can authoritatively tell you this. His immediate goal is the Oyo Governorship 2027,” the source said.
According to the source, several persons are already jostling for Adelabu’s position. However, he warned that whoever Tinubu picks would have a lot to do because the country’s power sector is in deep crisis.
Adelabu would exit Tinubu’s presidency without achieving his self-imposed 6,000 megawatts of electricity supply target.
Electricity supply from the national grid allocated to Discos as of Tuesday stood at 3,331 MW.
It was reported that in recent months, Nigerians have continued to face blackouts and an erratic power supply nationwide.
The Nigerian Integrated System Operator and electricity distribution companies had blamed gas shortages, leaving them to struggle with between 2,000 megawatts and 3,900 MW.
On Tuesday, Nigeria’s power generation companies shut down several gas plants over lingering power sector legacy debt amounting to over N6.8 trillion.
It was reported that Adelabu had targeted a 6000 MW electricity supply for Nigeria. He had already missed the 2025 target.
