(Published by the Sunday Tribune, March 15, 2026)
Let me start by saying that Ibadan in this piece is used to depict Oyo State as one of the 36 states of the Nigerian nation. Section 147(1-7) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provided for the office of the Ministers of the government. In Section 147(3), the constitution provides that the appointment of ministers shall be done in conformity with the provisions of Section 14(3) of the same constitution, which recognises the federal character principle. It further states that the president shall appoint at least one minister from each state of the federation, “who shall be an indigene of that state.”
By recognising indigeneship in the composition of the ministers, the constitution is emphasising representation. It means whoever is so appointed is a representative of the people of that state. Maybe that’s another way of ramming home the fact that democracy is essentially a representative government.
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So, whoever is appointed minister is seen as the connection between the state and the government at the centre. No matter how meagre, the people expect that the goodness of the centre will flow towards them, particularly from the sector their son is assigned to man.
With that arrangement, the 1999 Constitution, in a way, appears to recognise the resource control principle, which was popularized by the Niger Delta agitators some years back. At least, you should have a measure of control over resources closest to you. That principle also aligns with the saying that whoever is close to the mango tree should reap the benefits of that closeness in its season. It is also in line with the saying of our elders that even when you give a hoe to the madman, he draws things to his side. The people of Oyo State would have felt that the time had come when they would start enjoying better electricity supply immediately their son, Adebayo Adelabu, was named Minister of Power in 2023. In the estimation of such residents and indigenes, power has landed on their laps! But have we heard of being powerless in the realm of power, and that being so, the people of Ibadan (and Oyo State) can relate to the peculiar mess that easily pervades the power supply situation now. Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka wrote his novel, a faction (a mix of facts abd fivtion), which he called Ibadan: The Penkelemes years: a memoir 1946-1965. It was first published in 1994 by Spectrum Books, but I guess the time is ripe for another documentation of the Ibadan power Penkelemes from 2023. The frustration you see written on the faces of residents and indigenes of Ibadan and Oyo State, which give away tell-tale signs that the city and state have descended into the stone age as far as power supply is concerned, easily justifies that. They can’t connect with the fact that they have a son around the Ministry of Power, as the electricity supply has plummeted in the state to the lowest of the low levels. From a relatively stable power supply in many areas in 2023, the city of Ibadan and all the major cities in Oyo State have gradually regressed into blinding darkness. The Light-up project, once flaunted by the state government, is offering little or no help, either. Bodija Estate (Old and new), which used to be home to the capital city’s elite and powerful, is reduced to darkness that lasts for weeks, if not months. When the light blinks, the shout of Up NEPA, that rouses neighbourhoods, would not have subsided when the light returns to where it cometh. And the darkness remains for as long as it catches the fancy of the Disco. A drive around Ibadan and the major cities of Oyo State would only paint a picture of landscapes in prehistoric times, with darkness everywhere. The people are supposed to have power, but they remain powerless. The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), a Disco, which appears to feel no iota of shame in presiding over the darkness, got together the remnants of its conscience last week as it offered an apology for the poor power supply in its jurisdiction.
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IBEDC’s Public Relations Officer, David Adugbo, said in a statement that the disruptions across its franchise are attributable to nationwide generation challenges and rising electricity demand. He also explained that shortages of gas supply to power plants have limited generation capacity and forced increased load shedding. “Energy allocation from the national grid has remained unstable and subject to periodic declines, creating a wider gap between available supply and customer demand,” Adugbo said, while calling for dialogue with communities rather than protests.
He said nothing new, though. These are perennial excuses that have dogged the power supply situation in Nigeria since the earliest times. They were the excuses under the former leaders, including Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari. The question we need to ask the managers of the power sector is this: If the nation’s electricity sector managers have to commit more than 26 years to learn the practice of madness, how many years do they intend to live in the practice of madness before nature calls? We learnt that the Presidential Villa is trying to sort itself out by adopting the solar option. Why is that a sole preserve of the Villa? Why can’t the states also adopt the same, and why is the ministry busy playing the ostrich rather than finding solutions to the perennial problems? Maybe the man at the helm has found the solution he desires by introducing the BAND policy, which fetches money for the ineffective Discos, as we learnt that despite the poor service delivery, their earnings rose by as much as 29 per cent in 2025. That year, the 12 Discos earned N2.325 trillion, an increase of about N525 billion year-on-year over the N1.8 trillion they collected in 2024. Such a rise in revenue in a season when electricity supply has nosedived drastically can only be attributed to the discriminatory Band policy. Some of our brothers who would want to defend the minister would say that the problems of the sector are inherited. But the graduate of OAU should be able to tell us one solution he has proffered to any of the inherited problems. Rather than helping the people lift the burden, his Band policy has worsened the situation. I will even submit here that such a policy completely negates Section 14(2b) of the 1999 Constitution, which says “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” The constitution refers to all the people, Not Some People.
In recent years, the power situation got so bad that even the congenitally shameless felt shame for Ibadan and Oyo State people. It’s possible that the frustration in the power supply sector in the state informed the Okunkun Birimu jingle that is being circulated by some netizens on social media. Even though some people would argue that such a jingle might have a different direction altogether, the fact remains that something must give to bring power to Oyo State and Nigeria.
Last week, I was ashamed to see the effect of this powerlessness within the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university. That school has been in the news for many good things in recent weeks. So I was proud to drive through the gate as I thought of the huge number of First Class students produced by the Faculty of Law and other heartwarming developments. But I got the shock of my life when I discovered how much damage the zero power supply to Ibadan and Oyo State has done to the school. The business centre owner I contracted to print and photocopy some documents had to travel a distance to switch on the generating set she needs to power her printer and photocopying machines. She said that each of the thirty-something operators in the business centre runs a generator and that the sets are kept a bit far away from the centre and the Students’ Union Building to reduce the noise commotion around the complex. I suspected something was in the offing when she kept pestering me to take a seat close to her machine. I never knew she had to travel a distance to get power into her systems. When she returned, she was sweating like a Usain Bolt, who had just finished the 100-metre dash. So, you have over 30 generators polluting the air almost at once, inside an academic community where silence is of great value. You can imagine the level of disturbance the generating sets are causing to the Arts Theatre, nearby, the Faculty of Arts, Sultan Bello, and Tedder Halls? And we can also imagine the environmental pollution that is being caused in the community. And that’s an institution I stayed in between 1989 and 1997 without having to own a kerosene lamp.
It is a pity that the Ministry of Power cannot help the university, but that also tells us that the university should help itself. As centres of excellence, universities are designed to lead society by incubating ideas that move people forward. So, if we blame the power managers of Nigeria for failing to recognise the essence of their assignments, we may also not spare the rod for managers of our public universities who want to remain “bookish theorists”, as William Shakespeare would have it. The University of Ibadan should be in a position to damn the shenanigans of the power ministry by arming itself with a series of Solar Farms that can provide it with the energy critically needed to preserve its legacy. It also has the advantage of Awba and Eleyele Dams, where it could tap hydroelectric power. There is nothing that says a 78-year-old institution cannot be self-sufficient in power supply over the years.
And talking about self-sufficiency and the University of Ibadan, I came across another eyesore on the way to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine that same week. On your right hand is the abandoned farmland attached to the faculty. You will see the rot all over the farm that is already overgrown by, not just weeds, but trees. The vast land had in it disused and abandoned pens for different kinds of animals. I was told that when UI was answering its original name, the abandoned poultry used to supply eggs to Agbowo and environs after feeding the student population to satisfaction. Now that food security is an issue for the students, their teachers, and the larger community, why is UI allowing the place to rot away? In its present state, it’s only feeding our eyes with pity and sadness. If they don’t know, they have gold lying waste there. The authorities only need to advertise that location for the type of concession they fancy. I can tell them for free that there are so many Agric enthusiasts out there looking for such safe corridors to practice their trade and produce food for societal good.
