The Power Cabal: How Nigeria’s Electricity Sector Has Become the New Face of State Capture

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By Bukar Mohammed

Nigeria, once a land full of promise and untapped potential, has now become a fertile ground for all manner of cabals—oil cabals, subsidy cabals, contract cabals—and now, the emergence of a new power bloc: the electricity distribution companies (DISCOs), enabled by a weak and complicit Ministry of Power under an incompetent minister. These DISCOs have now formed what can only be described as the power cabal, the latest group to hold the nation hostage under the guise of privatization and reform.

This is not just inefficiency; it is state capture, pure and simple. It is the systematic takeover of public institutions and policymaking by private interests, enabled by political silence and regulatory impotence. The so-called reforms in the power sector have only strengthened private monopolies, increased tariffs, and deepened the suffering of Nigerians, who continue to live in darkness.

Let’s be honest: Nigeria has no stable electricity, yet the people are being classified into bands, paying higher tariffs, with no protests in sight. Why? Because the Labour unions have become labour-less—compromised or comatose—while Nigerians groan under the weight of unchecked exploitation. Even worse, when Nigerians do dare to speak up or protest, the state turns its guns on them, using taxpayers’ money to silence taxpayers.

If this isn’t madness, what is?

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In a country where blackmail has become a negotiation tool, the national grid is now being deliberately shut down like a hostage situation. And the demands never end. From fuel price hikes to power tariff increases, the Nigerian people are caught in an endless cycle of demands, threats, and extortion. And when citizens ask for accountability, they are met with violence, tear gas, or silence.

This power cabal, enabled by government negligence and corruption, is now a threat to national security, economic stability, and social cohesion. Illicit financial flows, unjustifiable tariffs, and opaque deals are draining our national wealth and pushing the masses into deeper poverty. The electricity sector, like the oil sector before it, has become another battleground where the state is being used to fight the very people it ought to serve.

Are we not heading for doom?

And yet, we are silent. We are told to endure. To be patient. To pay more, even when we have less. It is this complicity of silence, this normalization of suffering, that is most tragic.

We must ask: Who benefits from this chaos?

Certainly not the poor. Not the small business owner. Not the student reading by candlelight. Not the hospital relying on generators. It is the few, the powerful, the connected—the new power cabal—who are looting in broad daylight.

Until we name them, expose them, and demand accountability, Nigeria will remain in darkness—not just in electricity, but in justice, in governance, and in hope.

It is time to speak. Time to act. Time to reclaim our country from the hands of those who profit from our pain.

Bukar Mohammed is a governance, policy and public analyst from Kano.