Clearing the Cobwebs – Why Tinubu’s Order on 300 Stranded Power Containers is Reform with Substance, By Sufuyan Ojeifo

For two decades, Nigeria has been living a paradox that defies logic: 13,000MW of generation capacity, barely 5,000MW of transmission. We have held national prayers for light, blamed gas, blamed vandalism, blamed DisCos, while the answer was rusting at Apapa and Onne.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s order for the immediate clearance of over 300 containers of critical grid equipment – some stranded since 2006 – is not just an administrative directive. It is the most honest audit of why Nigeria’s power sector reform has stalled, and the most practical step taken in years to fix it.

It deserves commendation, not as politics, but as common sense finally prevailing.

—The Cost of Administrative Wickedness—

Minister of Power, Olasunkanmi Joseph Tegbe, was blunt: “Those containers are not empty containers. It is appalling to see that we find ourselves in such situations.”

He is right. These are not spare parts. They are high-capacity transformers, cables, switchgear, the very backbone of the East and West Super Grids designed to lift transmission from 5,000MW to 19,000MW. They are equipment for Katampe, Ikeja West, and dozens of substations completed but never energised. They were bought with public funds and loans from China, Germany and other partners under NIPP, TCN donor-funded projects, and the Presidential Power Initiative.

That they were left to rot because no one could coordinate NPA charges, Customs clearance and the Ministry of Power is not just failure – as the Minister noted, it is pure administrative wickedness. We paid for equipment, borrowed to pay for it, then paid demurrage to not use it, while Nigerians paid darkness.

Successive administrations from Obasanjo to Buhari inherited the rot and added to it. That President Tinubu has decided to break the cycle is telling of a reform mindset that looks beyond megawatts on paper to bolts and nuts at the port.

—Value Addition to Power Sector Reform—

Nigeria’s power reform has for years been heavy on policy documents and light on implementation. The Electricity Act 2023, unbundling of TCN, state electricity markets, and the renewed Presidential Power Initiative with Siemens are all sound frameworks. But no framework transmits power without transformers.

Clearing these 300 containers does three critical things for reform:

1.It closes the transmission bottleneck: Generation is no longer our biggest problem; evacuation is. If even 60% of that equipment is usable after technical audit, it immediately unlocks stranded substations and corridors along Lagos-Enugu-Port Harcourt and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano. That means more of what we already generate actually gets to the grid.

2.It restores investor confidence: No serious private investor wants to put money into generation or distribution when transmission is a black hole. Deploying these assets signals that government is serious about fixing the middle of the value chain, which makes state grid projects and private embedded generation more bankable.

3.It saves scarce forex and time: These transformers cannot be manufactured in Nigeria due to lack of specialised capacity. Re-importing would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take 18-24 months lead time. Recovering what we already own is fiscal prudence at its best.

—Path to Distributed and More Reliable Power—

The real gain is not just more megawatts centrally, but more distributed, stable power.

The Super Grid concept that these containers were meant for is designed to create redundancy. Today, one fault collapses the national grid. With East and West Super Grids and energised substations, power can be rerouted, wheeled over longer distances, and delivered to load centres without overloading legacy lines.

That is how you get improved power situation: not by announcing 20,000MW, but by ensuring a factory in Agbara, a cold room in Kano, and a home in Enugu can get 10 hours of steady supply instead of 4 hours of flicker.

When Katampe can fully evacuate, Abuja stabilises. When Ikeja West is fully equipped, Lagos industrial clusters breathe. Distributed power is not only about off-grid; it is about a stronger national grid that can actually distribute.

—From Clearance to Culture Shift—

Commendation must come with caution. The audit must be transparent. Experts must open each container, publish what is usable, what is obsolete, and what failed due to storage. Those who allowed this waste must be identified, not for witch-hunt, but to ensure NPA, Customs and Ministry of Power never again work in silos.

President Tinubu has ordered the clearance. The Minister must now ensure deployment, not just clearance to another warehouse.

For once, the solution to our power problem is not in Berlin or Beijing – it is at our own ports. Clearing the containers will not give us 24-hour power overnight, but it clears the cobwebs that have held Nigeria down for 20 years.

And that, in a sector long on excuses, is reform with substance.