Systems & Society
Columns on Nigerian institutions, infrastructure, democracy, energy and government.
8 essays
DOES President Bola Tinubu know that Alhaji Aliko Dangote says the cement he exports from Nigeria is cheaper than the cement he sells to Nigerians at home? If he does, has anyone in his government satisfactorily explained to him why? We, the people, demand an explanation. These questions have become necessary following disturbing findings by […]
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.
IN Part I of this series, published on February 9, 2026, I posed a simple but uncomfortable question: what would a regionally coordinated mineral value-chain system actually look like under Nigeria’s existing constitutional order? Since then, developments within Nigeria’s solid minerals sector have reinforced those concerns. At the Africa Commodities Conference and Exhibition held in […]
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.
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