Senate Confirms Tegbe as Power Minister, Issues 100-Day Grid Ultimatum

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe as Nigeria’s new Minister of Power and immediately handed him a challenge: fix the grid or face public accountability. Tegbe did not blink. He pledged to deliver measurable reforms within 100 days and said Nigerians should hold him to it.

“Hold me responsible if grid collapse continues,” Tegbe told senators during his screening. He promised a transparency dashboard to track progress in the power sector, and committed to specific targets on transmission, liquidity, and vandalism — the three biggest headaches in Nigeria’s electricity crisis.

Senate Sends a Clear Message

The confirmation was not rubber-stamped. Senators across party lines spent the plenary extracting firm commitments from Tegbe before approving him. Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno North) set the tone, calling grid collapse “a recurring decimal” that had undermined Nigeria’s industrialisation. He also flagged how insurgent attacks in the North-East had crippled transmission infrastructure, leaving Maiduguri dependent on alternative power sources.

The Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, presided over the session. Lawmakers pushed hard on timelines, rural electrification, and fixing the liquidity problems that keep power distribution companies (DISCOs) from paying generation companies (GENCOs).

Also Confirmed: New Foreign Affairs Minister of State

The Senate also confirmed Enikanolaiye as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs during the same session. Both confirmations come as President Tinubu continues reshaping his cabinet following recent ministerial changes.

Tegbe’s 100-day clock starts now. Whether his promises survive contact with the actual complexity of Nigeria’s power sector is a different story. Nigerians have heard many pledges from Power ministers before. The grid tends to have the last word.

Sources: BusinessDay, ThisDay Live, The Cable