By Uche Anichukwu

The dust raised by the contractual dispute between Amadeo Event Centre, a private enterprise in Enugu, and its client, the Nigeria Institute of Healthcare Givers and Medical Social Work Practitioners, has settled. It is now clear to Ndi Enugu and Nigerians that it was deliberately misrepresented by the Enugu opposition as an attempt by the Enugu State Government to bar the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, from holding their town hall meeting in the state capital.

Unable to campaign against Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah on performance, the so-called opposition have adopted a campaign of calumny and the dirty art of disinformation as their only tools for political relevance. They have no single manifesto, except to contrive falsehoods to deceive and destroy reputations. While the factional senatorial candidate of the NDC for Enugu East Senatorial District, one Ada Ogbu, is a prime culprit, it is needless dignifying her with a riposte. Desperate people do desperate things.

The real disappointment in the entire drama is Sam Amadi, my good friend of over two decades and a public intellectual now turned politician. As one who has a reputation to protect, his piece on Governor Peter Mbah and Enugu State has left one wondering what came over him. Was it an error of judgement? I do not think so. He is a lawyer. He knows about the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s (JSC) admonition in Garba v. University of Maiduguri (1986) 1 NWLR (Pt. 18) 550. According to the late sage, God gave us two ears to hear both sides. I was just a phone call away if he really wanted to hear the other side. But he chose politics over a balanced commentary.

All doubts as to his intention were cleared by his response to the reactions of Governor Mbah’s supporters and aides to his diatribe. Rather than remorsefully withdraw some of his obnoxious and fallacious claims, he embarked on self-glorification. It is the case of the proverbial hen. Her kindred were still expressing shock, watching the way she dismembered a heap of excreta with her toes, only for her to also employ her mouth (beak) in the disgusting enterprise.

Not many would understand the dangerousness of Amadi’s commentary, as his crafty art of disinformation was cloaked as genuine concerns of a public intellectual with a civil society background. That is exactly the reason we must separate Amadi the politician and a contender for the Imo State governorship seat on the platform of the NDC come November 2027 from Amadi the public intellectual to understand what drives not only his attack on Mbah’s government but also his takes on national issues going forward.

Only Amadi the politician could have claimed that Enugu State is the most politically violent state in Nigeria without reference to any survey to that effect, thus allowing his intellectualism to take flight in the face of dirty politicking, yet again. But Enugu State is adjudged by the Nigerian security sector and even the travel advisories of major world powers like the UK to be one of the most peaceful and secure states in Nigeria today.

He equally claimed that “Every week, one person would be shot dead at a political rally in Enugu.” Again, another wicked drinking parlour claim, not backed by verifiable facts. No names. No places. No dates. Just reckless politics and naked dance in the market square. It beggars belief, and one can only wonder how proud of himself Amadi was after reading his piece of diatribe the next morning.

Meanwhile, although he concedes that Mbah has the right to support President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, he betrayed his real grouse with Mbah when he claimed that Governor Mbah was trying to abolish political pluralism “because of his fears that he lacks the political capacity to get Tinubu 25% in Enugu State.”

There are two major problems with this statement. One is the entitlement mentality. Let us get something straight: Obi is pursuing his political dream, which is well within his rights. But his personal dream does not subsume that of every Igbo man or woman. By the way, I do not think that there is any reasonable Igbo man who does not support the Igbo presidency project. We can only differ in our approach. While some believe they can go it alone here and now, banking on individual popularity, others believe it can only be realised through good timing and strategic alliances with other parts of the country. Neither of the two approaches deserves to be demonised, as both are working towards the same goal. Only time will prove one group right and the other wrong.

Besides, from the colonial era, when Samuel Goomsu Ikoku squared up against his father, Dr. Alvan Ikoku, and defeated him to claim the Arochukwu constituency seat in the Eastern Region House of Assembly election in 1957, to the 1983 general elections, when Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) took on Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu of Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the battle for the Onitsha (old Anambra State) Senatorial District in 1983, politicians have always done their thing. Even Ojukwu joined the NPN instead of Zik’s NPP. Ojukwu’s wife is a serving minister in Tinubu’s cabinet. Does that mean the Ojukwu household is anti-Igbo? Not at all.

I equally cringe at the hypocrisy of praising Yoruba or Northern leaders who support Obi as heroes while demonising Igbo leaders who decide to support Tinubu or Atiku Abubakar. The likes of Amadi seem to forget that if everybody should strictly support his or her tribesman, then the South East, with the least number of registered voters (only 11,976,218 voters, or 11.58 per cent of INEC’s 103,428,715 voters), might never be able to produce the President of Nigeria.

Amadi also dabbled into the economy of Enugu. In acknowledging the state’s jump from the bottom of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) table before Mbah’s advent to third place (only behind Lagos and Rivers states) in 2025, he still misfired on how Enugu achieved the feat. As a lawyer, he understands that tax matters are on the Exclusive Legislative List, hence no State Assembly can legislate to increase or reduce tax, yet he still tried to create the false impression that Enugu citizens were being overtaxed. He claimed that the state’s IGR-to-GDP ratio did not justify the huge IGR revenue.

However, contrary to this misrepresentation, the state’s IGR surge did not come from tax. In fact, out of the N406.7 billion recorded by the state in 2025, for instance, tax revenue accounted for just N51.5bn, or 12.6 per cent, while non-tax revenue was N355.2bn, or 87.4 per cent of the total IGR. The surge was actually inspired by improved fiscal performance, which is why the state moved from 19th place on the States’ Fiscal Performance Measure in 2023 to 13th in 2025.

Mbah has been radical in deploying technology to block revenue leakages and sharp practices that moved public funds into private accounts. The government also widened the tax net to bring in more people to fulfil their civic obligations, while also digitising the entire revenue system to make revenue collection cost-effective. Importantly, the state’s revenue base has been widened by the recovery, revival, optimisation, and monetisation of Enugu’s moribund assets – Nigergas Limited, Enugu United Palm Products Limited, Hotel Presidential, and the International Conference Centre – in addition to new ventures like Enugu Air, which are yielding revenues.

When Amadi talked down on Enugu’s GDP, he was apparently too blinded by partisanship to notice the disruptive and exponential economic diversification that has continued to take place in Enugu State since 2023. The Enugu he used to know as a civil service state has now become a major economic hub across all sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, trade, tourism, and others. So, while relying on the obsolete GDP rating, common sense should have told him that, in view of higher economic activities and investments in the last three years, Enugu’s GDP must have improved significantly.

In concluding, let it be known that Amadi’s purported pro-Igbo and Obi activism is steeped in selfish political calculations. Since he was unable to secure the Labour Party ticket for the 2023 Imo governorship election, his pedestrian calculation is that a victory for Obi in January will brighten his governorship ambition. And that is well within his rights as he strategises for his political ambition. But he should drop the pretence that he is doing it for Obi or that he loves Alaigbo more. He is actually looking out for himself. Period.

There is no debate about Nigeria’s power crisis.

Millions still live on generators and inverters. Businesses run below capacity. Communities endure long outages. The national grid is fragile, and the gap between installed capacity and actual supply remains painfully wide.

Managing Director of Leadership Newspapers and columnist, Azu Ishiekwene, is right about the problem. Nigeria has not solved its electricity crisis. No serious Minister of Power should pretend otherwise.

But a system can be deeply broken and still begin to move in the right direction.

That distinction is essential in assessing Joseph Tegbe’s first 100 days.

A minister who has spent barely three months in office cannot be expected to fix a failure of decades. He cannot be judged as if he inherited a working market, nor should he be dismissed because the lights have not suddenly come on everywhere.

The fair question is: what has actually changed?

—What Tegbe inherited—

Tegbe did not inherit an empty cupboard. He inherited a structurally weak sector.

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission [NERC] data for April 2026 puts installed grid-connected capacity at 13,625MW. Average available capacity that month was just 4,286MW. Only about a third was available for dispatch.

That is the crisis in one number.

The financials are worse. The sector’s debt backlog is about N3.3 trillion, with only 27% of GenCos’ invoices being paid. That chokes gas supply, generation, and maintenance across the entire value chain.

His predecessor admitted it. In January 2025, then Minister Adelabu described the grid as old and dilapidated, saying government was merely managing it pending a major overhaul. Grid disturbances were frequent. In April 2024 alone, Nigeria had suffered its fifth collapse of the year.

The starting point was ugly.

—What has actually moved—

Start with generation.

Before June, generation and transmission hovered between 3,700MW and 4,700MW. In the weeks before Tegbe’s 100-day briefing in September, it crossed 5,000MW, with a peak of 5,330MW in August and September.

That does not mean 24-hour power. It does mean a measurable shift at system level.

NERC’s August factsheet corroborates it: average available capacity of 4,758MW, with 4,102MW utilised.

Then Alaoji. A 375MW plant offline for three years is now back on the grid.

On transmission, interventions in Lagos and Abuja have unlocked 912MW of additional capacity – 672MW from new transformers at Apapa, Ijora, Alausa and Lekki, and 240MW from a 300MVA transformer at Katampe.

These are not promises. They are physical additions to the system. They will not light up every home tomorrow, but they cannot be dismissed because Wuse Market still runs generators.

Another telling intervention: over 300 containers of critical power equipment, long stranded at the ports, have been released for inspection and deployment. It is a quintessentially Nigerian paradox – unfinished projects in the field, equipment stuck in ports. Moving them is unglamorous, but essential.

—Metering, money and the hidden work—

Consider 350,000.

That is the number of meters installed in Tegbe’s first 100 days, taking cumulative installations to 1,004,260 as of August 2026. Resolution of litigation around the AMMON programme has also unlocked procurement of 1.4 million smart meters, while 5,000 young Nigerians are being trained as installers.

A meter does not generate power, but it fixes one of the market’s most corrosive problems: estimated billing. It makes consumption measurable, billing defensible, and revenue more transparent.

Then liquidity.

The Federal Government has raised N1.23 trillion towards the N3.3 trillion debt backlog. It does not clear the debt, but it is a substantial injection into a value chain whose illiquidity threatened collapse. The Presidency had earlier confirmed a phased settlement of verified legacy debts through the domestic capital market.

Along the Ikorodu-Sagamu industrial corridor, interventions are targeting energy theft and revenue losses estimated at N120 billion annually. No ribbon-cutting, but critical work.

Power reform is often like that. The most consequential gains happen inside the machinery before consumers feel them.

—The freezer is not the story—

Tegbe’s “freezer” comment – that some areas now enjoy up to 18 hours, with residents joking that their freezers are freezing too much – has been blown out of proportion.

As a national claim, it would be absurd. Nigeria is not on 18 hours of supply.

Tegbe himself has clarified: system-wide improvement does not mean improvement on every feeder.

That is the reality of the grid. One location can have 18 hours while another is in darkness. The country can hit 5,330MW at peak while a factory still runs diesel. Lagos and Abuja can gain transmission capacity while another cluster suffers.

All three can be true at once.

Something has changed. It simply has not changed everywhere.

The real test is not the anecdote. It is whether early, localised gains can be converted into sustained, wider, commercially viable supply.

—The harder test—

Pretending Tegbe has fixed power in 100 days is dishonest. He has not.

Giving him a free pass because generation crossed 5,000MW is also wrong.

But claiming nothing has changed is equally dishonest. The evidence says otherwise: A 375MW plant back on the grid. 912MW of transmission capacity unlocked. Generation peak of 5,330MW. About 350,000 meters in 100 days. Over one million cumulatively. N1.23 trillion mobilised for debts. Over 300 containers of equipment released. Specific transmission corridors and a Super Grid proposal outlined for the next phase.

What matters now is what Tegbe does with this acknowledgement that national numbers do not invalidate local pain. That is a useful stance for a minister – it respects the difference between a spreadsheet and a household.

Nigeria does not need another minister who declares victory because a graph moved. It needs one who takes a moving graph and keeps pushing until it becomes a lived experience.

That is the burden on Tegbe’s desk.

The problems are formidable. Expectations are huge. Patience is thin.

Three months is enough to show direction. It is not enough to deliver transformation.

The power sector is still broken.

But the machinery is beginning to move.

● Comrade Tony Erha is a journalist and columnist.

By Atiku Abubakar

TWENTY-one days have come and gone since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu left Nigeria on what the Presidency described as a three-week annual vacation.

Today, Nigerians are entitled to ask a very simple constitutional question: Who is in charge of Nigeria?

Section 145 of the Constitution is not ambiguous about presidential vacations. It provides that whenever the President proceeds on vacation, he shall transmit a written declaration to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whereupon the Vice President performs the functions of President as Acting President.

And where the President fails to transmit that declaration within 21 days, the Constitution provides a further safeguard: the National Assembly shall, by a simple majority of each House, mandate the Vice President to perform the functions of President as Acting President.

President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August. The Presidency publicly announced a three-week vacation. Yet, to date, Nigerians have not been shown any constitutional letter transmitting presidential authority to Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The 21 days have now elapsed. If such a letter exists, the Presidency should publish it immediately.

If it does not, then the constitutional mechanism contemplated by Section 145(2) has been triggered, and the National Assembly owes Nigerians an explanation as to why it has not acted.

This is not a matter of political convenience. It is a matter of constitutional order.

The situation is made even more disturbing by the fact that Vice President Shettima is himself presently in New York representing Nigeria at the United Nations General Assembly — the third consecutive UN General Assembly at which President Tinubu has delegated Nigeria’s representation to his deputy.

So again: who is exercising presidential authority in Nigeria today, and under what constitutional instrument?

Nigeria cannot be governed by assumptions. It cannot be governed by presidential social-media posts from Europe.

It cannot be governed by photographs from private dinners at the Élysée Palace.

It cannot be governed on autopilot.

While President Tinubu has been abroad, 37 Nigerians died in NSCDC custody in Minna, an incident grave enough to trigger investigations, suspensions and demands for independent scrutiny.

At the same time, petrol is selling for as much as ₦1,500 per litre in parts of the country, worsening transportation costs and squeezing families already struggling with the cost of food, electricity, rent and other necessities.

These are not ordinary times. Yet the President is abroad. The Vice President is abroad.
The Senate President is abroad.
And Nigerians have not been told, in the clear constitutional language required of a serious democracy, who is exercising the powers of the President.

President Tinubu’s private dinner with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris may serve diplomatic purposes. But Nigeria itself cannot be placed on vacation.

The Constitution does not recognise a “working vacation” as an alternative system of presidential succession.

It provides a procedure. That procedure must be obeyed.

The Presidency should therefore tell Nigerians immediately whether President Tinubu transmitted the declaration contemplated by Section 145(1) before leaving the country.

The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House should equally tell Nigerians whether such a communication was received.

And if no declaration was transmitted within the constitutionally stipulated period, the National Assembly must explain why the procedure provided by Section 145(2) has not been activated.

Nigeria is bigger than any President. At a time of severe economic hardship, rising energy costs, security challenges and the shocking deaths of citizens in government custody, the country deserves visible, accountable and constitutionally grounded leadership.

The question will not disappear: Who, constitutionally, is in charge of Nigeria?

“ Atiku Abubakar
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress and Vice President of Nigeria, 1999-2007
Abuja