Systems & Society
Columns on Nigerian institutions, infrastructure, democracy, energy and government.
8 essays
TODAY, I begin a four-part investigation into Nigeria’s power sector, drawing principally on Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) quarterly reports covering April 2025 to March 2026.
LAST week, I intended to discuss how record-breaking heatwaves are increasing demand for cooling, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to warn of mounting pressure on electricity systems. Nigeria must treat grid restructuring and coordinated distributed energy systems as national priorities for affordable electricity, industrialisation and economic development. The question is: what electricity system should […]
ON July 2, 2026, the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency (IEA) unanimously admitted Nigeria as an Association country, bringing Africa’s most populous nation into the “IEA Family”. The agency described the decision as “a major advance for global energy governance”, expanding a partnership that now represents more than 80 per cent of global […]
WHEN Adebayo Adelabu was appointed Nigeria’s Minister of Power, I publicly congratulated him and offered advice to a fellow indigene of Oyo State.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, was established in 1960 at the Baghdad Conference by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to coordinate oil production and protect the interests of producing nations. The United Arab Emirates joined in 1967, becoming part of a system that shaped the modern oil order through collective […]
THE departure of Adebayo Adelabu as Minister of Power presents an opportunity for structural reset in a sector long managed through incremental adjustment rather than deliberate redesign. The word “Penkelemesi”—“peculiar mess”—popularized by Adelabu’s grandfather—aptly describes Nigeria’s power sector. From recurring grid collapses to chronic underperformance, it remains a study in systemic dysfunction. From recommendation to […]
A new monitoring committee raises a deeper question: whether coordination mechanisms solve gas-to-power failures or reveal weaknesses in existing institutions.
A systems account of how capable states build reserves and policy buffers before global oil and gas shocks reach households and firms.
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