The President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Prof. Sadiq Zubair Abubakar, has blamed the persistent collapse of Nigeria’s national power grid on the lack of transparency within the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Speaking during a courtesy visit to the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Prof. Sadiq highlighted structural flaws in TCN’s operations, noting that its centralized control leaves no room for independent investigation into the causes of grid failures.
“We are not happy with the incessant failure of the national grid, what we discovered is that the TCN has been a regulator and player in a way and we have made submission that that cannot be,” he said.
Describing the situation as a systemic flaw, the COREN president pointed out that TCN acts as designer, installer, maintainer, and repairer of the grid, effectively eliminating any form of external oversight.
“It is an aberration in any country, they design, install, maintain and when it fails they are the one that repairs it which is not to be so and nobody can independently investigate,” he added.
He expressed relief that the federal government had taken steps to address the issue.
“So we are happy that the government has listened to us and split the agency to make sure that the operator and regulatory aspect comes in handy as NERC is given more power to work with relevant agencies,” he said.
Prof. Sadiq also voiced concerns over COREN’s removal from the national budget, questioning how the council could fulfill its mandate without government funding.
“In the coming of this administration, we were defunded but how does the government want us to regulate engineering, investigate infrastructures, police expatriates that are taking the fortune of our citizens without this fund,” he said.
To address funding challenges, he disclosed that COREN is exploring innovative funding models and urged the ICRC to consider the council’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) proposal for constructing its permanent headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.
In response, ICRC Director General Dr. Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh emphasized the importance of enhancing engineering competencies across the country.
He stated, “There is the need for Nigerians to upscale their engineering skills to reduce employment gap, so that in the overall aspect, the development of Nigeria will be based on quality and resilient engineering.”
Dr. Ewalefoh assured that the ICRC is open to collaborating with COREN to support the realization of its proposed headquarters and strengthen its regulatory capacity.
