Kunle Olubiyo, President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, has expressed grave concerns over the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s national power grid, emphasizing that these repeated failures highlight the longstanding inadequacies within the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). Speaking after the sixth grid collapse of 2024, which occurred at 6:48 pm on October 14, Olubiyo criticized the TCN for its failure to address systemic challenges that have left the country in recurrent darkness.
Olubiyo pointed out that TCN has continuously “paid lip service” to critical issues surrounding the stability and reliability of the national grid. He attributed the collapses to years of poor management decisions, a lack of protective devices, insufficient investment in infrastructure, and inadequate vegetation control around transmission lines.
“The repeated occurrences of system collapses are a direct result of TCN’s misplaced priorities and lack of a sincere approach to addressing these problems,” he stated.
The collapse comes at a time when Nigerians are grappling with a 240% hike in electricity tariffs, further deepening public frustration. TCN’s records reveal that the national grid has collapsed over 227 times in the last 14 years, with notable failures in February, July, August, and September of 2024.
