“How Did Ghana Get The Power Nigeria Cannot Produce?” — Murray-Bruce Challenges

By Passman Akpos

Former lawmaker and businessman, Ben Murray-Bruce, has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to undertake a fundamental overhaul of Nigeria’s electricity system, declaring that the country’s 2013 power-sector privatisation has failed Nigerians.

Murray-Bruce made the call in an open letter titled “Start The Dance On Electricity: The Privatisation Failed. The Owners Are Billing Darkness,” in which he argued that Nigerians are increasingly being forced to pay for electricity despite enduring prolonged blackouts

According to him, Nigeria can no longer afford to depend almost entirely on a centralised national grid that continues to struggle with generation, transmission and distribution challenges.

Instead, he proposed a decentralised electricity revolution in which states, communities, estates, wards and private investors would develop and operate local power systems, particularly through solar generation.

‘That Is Not An Industry — It Is A Rumour Of An Industry’

Murray-Bruce cited figures attributed to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), saying Nigeria has about 13,625 megawatts of installed generation capacity, but only approximately 4,286MW was available for dispatch.

He also pointed to the reported plunge in national generation on Saturday, August 22, when output reportedly fell to about 1,132MW around 8:30pm after exceeding 4,000MW earlier in the day.

Several generating stations, he noted, were reportedly producing nothing during the period.“That is not an industry, Your Excellency. That is a rumour of an industry,” Murray-Bruce declared.

‘Privatisation Was A Transfer Of Custody’

The former lawmaker also took aim at the 2013 privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity assets, arguing that the exercise transferred critical infrastructure to private investors without adequately guaranteeing their capacity to finance the enormous investments required to operate and expand the sector.

He argued that owning a power plant or distribution company is not the same as possessing the financial strength and technical capacity required to sustain billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

Murray-Bruce suggested that Nigeria should have attracted major international utility companies with stronger balance sheets and deeper technical expertise.

Instead, he argued, the country ended up with private operators facing huge financial obligations while the Federal Government continues to intervene with public funds.

He claimed generating companies are owed more than ₦7 trillion, while the Federal Government has approved a ₦4 trillion bond programme to address liabilities in the sector.

He further estimated that about ₦10 trillion in public funds had gone into the electricity industry over roughly 13 years, yet millions of Nigerians remain trapped in darkness.

‘An Estimated Bill Is A Machine That Does Not Tell The Truth’

Murray-Bruce also criticised the continued use of estimated billing, particularly among electricity customers who do not have meters.

He cited figures indicating that as of February 2026, approximately 5.1 million of Nigeria’s 12.31 million active electricity customers remained unmetered.

He specifically referenced reported metering challenges involving some distribution companies, including Yola, Jos, Kano, Kaduna and Ibadan.

Yet, according to the figures he cited, DisCos collected approximately ₦801.16 billion between January and April.

“An industry that cannot generate power has discovered it can still generate revenue by billing darkness,” he said.

‘Private Companies Today, Public Charities Tomorrow’

While acknowledging that generating companies are owed substantial amounts, Murray-Bruce argued that GenCos must also accept responsibility for decisions taken after entering the Nigerian market.

He accused operators of spending years demanding higher tariffs and government intervention while, in his view, failing to make adequate capital investments.

“You cannot be a private company on the day the tariff rises and a public charity on the day the invoice falls due,” he argued.

His Radical Proposal: ‘Every Community Should Have Its Own PHCN’

Murray-Bruce’s alternative is a dramatic shift away from Nigeria’s traditional centralised electricity model.

He wants estates, communities, wards and other local areas to be empowered to establish their own electricity systems.

Using Dolphin Estate in Lagos as an example, he suggested that an estate with approximately 5,000 families could secure a bank loan of about ₦3 billion to establish a fully metered solar electricity system.

Under the proposed arrangement, state governments would guarantee financing, while residents would pay regulated tariffs sufficient to cover generation costs and provide reasonable returns.

He believes the model could then be replicated across Nigeria.

“Every village, every estate, every community in Nigeria should have its own PHCN,” he declared.‘Create Millionaires And Billionaires In Every Local Government’

Beyond solving Nigeria’s electricity crisis, Murray-Bruce believes decentralisation could create a new generation of indigenous power entrepreneurs.

He argued that communities with access to financing and guaranteed customer bases could develop locally owned electricity companies, creating businesses and jobs across the country.

“Nigerians are entrepreneurs by nature. They are bold, they are intelligent, they are creative,” he said.

His vision is for Nigerians to become owners of electricity infrastructure rather than perpetual consumers of an unreliable system.

States Must Take Greater Responsibility

Under Murray-Bruce’s proposed model, state governments would take greater responsibility for powering critical state-owned infrastructure.

This would include streetlights, police stations, primary healthcare centres, schools and other state facilities, largely through solar energy.

The Federal Government, meanwhile, would concentrate on federal institutions and infrastructure.

He also proposed transforming the role of the Federal Minister of Power into that of a coordinator of state electricity regulators rather than attempting to centrally manage every aspect of power supply.

‘The Money Already Exists’

Murray-Bruce argued that Nigeria is already spending enormous amounts of money coping with unreliable electricity.

Businesses and households spend heavily on diesel, petrol, generators, repairs and maintenance while simultaneously paying electricity bills.

His argument is that Nigerians are already paying for electricity—only through what he described as an extraordinarily expensive and unreliable system.

“We are already paying for power. We are simply paying for the most expensive, dirtiest and least reliable version of it ever devised,” he wrote.

‘The Law Is Already On Your Side’

Murray-Bruce also pointed to the Electricity Act 2023, arguing that states now have significantly greater powers to participate in electricity regulation.

For him, the major obstacle is therefore no longer legislation but implementation and political will.“The legal architecture for everything I have described already exists. What is missing is not law. It is nerve,” he declared.

Aba Offers A Different Possibility

Murray-Bruce pointed to Aba as an example of what decentralised electricity arrangements could potentially achieve.

He referenced the January 2026 national grid collapse and argued that Aba’s integrated electricity arrangement enabled it to maintain supply despite the wider grid crisis.

“One city solved it. Not with a policy paper. With a plant and a meter,” he said.

‘Stop Blaming Tinubu For The Darkness In Your Street’

In one of the most provocative sections of his letter, Murray-Bruce urged Nigerians to broaden the search for accountability beyond the Presidency.

He argued that with the expanded electricity powers available to states, Nigerians should also demand answers from their governors, state electricity regulators and other authorities.

His position is that state governments can no longer completely blame Abuja for electricity failures within their jurisdictions.

But Nobody Is Completely Innocent

Despite his criticism of the Federal Government, Murray-Bruce acknowledged that responsibility for Nigeria’s electricity crisis cuts across the entire value chain.

He pointed to government subsidy obligations, GenCos, DisCos, state governments and other stakeholders as parties with questions to answer.

However, he maintained that President Tinubu has the political authority to force a fundamental reset.

His target is ambitious: 70 per cent electricity coverage across Nigeria within four years.“Forget PHCN. Forget the men who bought what they could not run. There is nothing left to discuss,” he concluded.

“Let us move forward.

Ghana-Nigeria Electricity Question Adds Another Twist

Murray-Bruce’s intervention comes as Nigeria’s electricity crisis is also generating renewed attention around regional power trading

As previously reported by Tarakirivoice, Ghana has signalled ambitions to expand electricity exports to Nigeria as part of a broader strategy to strengthen West Africa’s regional electricity market.

Ghana already supplies electricity to countries including Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, while its Energy and Green Transition Minister, John Abdulai Jinapor, has spoken of the need to expand generation and transmission capacity to support further exports.

The possibility of Nigeria increasingly relying on electricity imports from a neighbouring country has consequently raised uncomfortable questions about the state of Africa’s largest economy’s own electricity infrastructure.

For critics of Nigeria’s current model, the emerging Ghana-Nigeria power trade presents an uncomfortable paradox: a country blessed with enormous gas, hydro, solar and other energy resources could potentially be buying electricity from a smaller neighbouring economy.

The debate is therefore shifting from simply asking “Why is Nigeria in darkness?” to a much bigger question:

After more than a decade of privatisation, billions of naira in government interventions and repeated tariff reforms, who should ultimately own, finance and control Nigeria’s electricity future?

Murray-Bruce believes the answer lies not in another bailout of the existing system, but in putting electricity generation and distribution directly into the hands of states, communities and Nigerian entrepreneurs.