By Sunday Apah
The nation’s electricity infrastructure has suffered another catastrophic failure, with the national grid collapsing entirely and triggering extensive blackouts across multiple regions.
This breakdown has severely disrupted power supply for millions of residential and commercial consumers.
Investigative findings confirm that power generation plummeted dramatically from upwards of 4,500 megawatts to a critically low threshold of just 24 megawatts as of 1:30 p.m. Every one of the 23 generation facilities linked to the grid ceased production during the event, leading to a complete suspension of power allocation to all 11 distribution companies.
Authorities have not yet identified the precise cause of the failure, and representatives from the Transmission Company of Nigeria had not released a comprehensive statement by the time this report was finalized.
This incident marks the first recorded grid collapse of 2026, occurring only weeks after a previous failure on December 29, 2025, which similarly resulted in nationwide electricity disruptions.
Industry analysts note that recent grid collapses have frequently stemmed from a confluence of technical malfunctions, insufficient maintenance of transmission infrastructure, and volatile generation outputs. Energy sector stakeholders have repeatedly urged governmental and operational bodies to enforce stronger preventive protocols to avert such systemic recurrences.
As the public anticipates an official response, this latest grid failure has intensified scrutiny over the reliability of Nigeria’s power network and its capacity to meet escalating demands for stable electricity.
