Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has accused former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi of lacking a proper understanding of Nigeria’s electricity sector, insisting that the country already has an installed generation capacity of 13,500 megawatts.
Speaking on the state of the power sector, Onanuga said electricity generation has improved under the current administration and argued that the situation is significantly better than what President Bola Tinubu inherited.
According to him, the country’s biggest challenge is not generation capacity but the shortage of gas required to power electricity plants.
“Power generation has increased. We are no longer at the level the president met it. Nigeria already has a stored capacity of 13,500 megawatts,” Onanuga said.
He attributed the gas supply constraints to mounting debts owed by operators in the power sector, revealing that electricity market participants owe gas companies more than ₦4 trillion in legacy liabilities.
“The problem we are having is gas supply. The players in the sector are owing the gas companies legacy debts of over ₦4 trillion, and that has become one of the major challenges confronting this administration,” he added.
Onanuga’s remarks come amid ongoing debates over the Tinubu administration’s handling of the power sector, with opposition figures, including Peter Obi, repeatedly calling for improved electricity generation and distribution to drive economic growth and industrial development.
