The Nigerian Senate has confirmed Joseph Tegbe as Minister of Power and Sola Enikanolaiye as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, respectively.
At its sitting on Wednesday, the Senate made the confirmation following a nomination and confirmation request sent to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday.
While subjecting Tegbe to scrutiny, the Senators told him that Nigeria’s installed generation exceeded 13,000MW yet actual supply rarely surpassed 4,500MW because transmission and distribution systems remained weak.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (representing Abia South) raised concerns about the stability of the national grid. Abaribe specifically questioned the nominee about the frequent grid collapses, noting that they occur whenever supply exceeds 5,000 megawatts.
Responding to questions on Nigeria’s power crisis, Tegbe expressed confidence that visible improvements would emerge within three to six months, saying that President Bola Tinubu and Nigerians expect measurable progress and pledging immediate reforms to address the longstanding electricity challenges.
Tegbe promised Nigerians and the Senate that his tenure would deliver visible progress capable of transforming the power sector, saying: “My promise to Nigeria and to this chamber is that Nigerians will see visible improvement in the sector”.
He pledged to conduct independent diagnostics of the power sector while deepening transparency and accountability in public-sector performance, assuring that he would strengthen collaboration among the Ministry of Power, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and stakeholders.
Tegbe maintained that Nigeria’s electricity crisis extended beyond technical failures, encompassing governance, capitalisation, sustainability, gas supply, and commercial inefficiencies, describing recurring grid collapse as evidence of weak transmission systems, aging infrastructure, unstable frequency control, and inadequate regulatory enforcement.
According to him, gas shortages, transmission bottlenecks, and poor coordination continue to keep electricity generation below installed national capacity, promising to stabilize the national grid, modernise infrastructure, improve commercial frameworks, and enforce accountability across the electricity value chain.
He promised that tariff reforms would protect vulnerable households while balancing sustainability, investor confidence, and broader sector efficiency, pledging support for sub-national investments in mini-grids, solar expansion, and state participation under the Electricity Act.
Tegbe also promised innovation, broad consultation, and difficult but necessary decisions to resolve Nigeria’s chronic electricity crisis.
The lawmakers warned that entrenched parochial interests, including generator importers and underperforming distribution firms, could resist meaningful reforms.
The President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, urged Tegbe to avoid bureaucratic traps and prioritise lasting solutions over contract-driven maintenance culture, stressing that stable electricity remained essential for industrialisation, national security, economic growth, and Nigeria’s development aspirations.
He also condemned exploitative billing by DSTV and electricity providers, questioning why Nigerians pay for unused services while consumers abroad enjoyed pay-as-you-go systems without unfair deductions.
Akpabio urged the minister-designate to address daily subscription charges, and estimated billing, insisting Nigerians deserved fair consumer protection in the telecommunications and power sectors.
