DARKNESS IS COMING: GAS SUPPLIERS PULL THE PLUG ON POWER PLANTS AS N3.3TN DEBT CRISIS THREATENS TO PLUNGE NIGERIA INTO DEEPER BLACKOUT

DARKNESS IS COMING: GAS SUPPLIERS PULL THE PLUG ON POWER PLANTS AS N3.3TN DEBT CRISIS THREATENS TO PLUNGE NIGERIA INTO DEEPER BLACKOUT. If you thought the light situation in Nigeria could not get any worse, brace yourself — because the worst may still be ahead. Gas suppliers have drawn a line in the sand. They are halting supply to thermal power plants across the country over a staggering N3.3 trillion debt owed by power generation companies, and the consequences for ordinary Nigerians could be nothing short of catastrophic.

The alarm was raised by Dr Joy Ogaji, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, and the message is as blunt as it is alarming: pay up, or the plants go dark. Let that number sink in. N3.3 trillion. Not millions. Not billions. Trillions. That is the size of the financial hole that has been allowed to fester in Nigeria’s power sector while Nigerians endure some of the most punishing electricity shortages on the continent. Businesses are running on generators.

Hospitals are struggling. Students are reading by candlelight. And the people responsible for fixing it have accumulated a debt so enormous it is now threatening to collapse the entire thermal power generation chain.

The Nigerian power sector has always been a tale of spectacular dysfunction — a graveyard of promises, reforms, privatisations, and committees that produced noise but no light. But this development takes the crisis to a dangerous new level. Thermal power plants are the backbone of whatever grid capacity Nigeria has left. If gas supply is cut off, the little electricity that Nigerians currently enjoy — and “enjoy” is being used very loosely here — will shrink further. Industries will bleed. The informal economy will take another body blow. The middle class, already gasping, will be squeezed even harder.

The deeper scandal here is not just the debt — it is how it was allowed to grow this large without consequence. Where was the regulatory oversight? Where was the Ministry of Power? Where were the emergency interventions that should have prevented a N3.3 trillion crisis from reaching the point where gas suppliers feel they have no option but to shut the tap? Nigerians deserve answers, and they deserve them now. The Tinubu administration has talked extensively about economic transformation and investment in infrastructure. But you cannot build a 21st-century economy on darkness.

Energy is the foundation of everything — manufacturing, commerce, healthcare, education, technology. Every day without power is a day Nigeria’s economy bleeds money it cannot afford to lose. The federal government must treat this as the emergency it is. The debt must be addressed urgently, a structured payment framework must be established immediately, and gas suppliers must be given credible assurances that keep the plants running while a lasting solution is negotiated. Half-measures will not work this time. The lights are flickering. If nothing is done, they may go out entirely — and no amount of political spin will be able to hide the darkness that follows.