Nigerian legislators and other stakeholders have been urged to seize the window of the planned review of the 1999 Constitution to bring about reforms that would mitigate the current energy crisis in the country.
Energy expert and founder of PUTTRU, Africa’s frontline energy investment facilitating platform, Monica Maduekwe, said Nigeria’s current constitution needs to be reformed to reflect the real drivers of development, rather than concentrating too much power and many responsibilities at the centre, which in turn creates moral hazard and principal-agent problems.
In a statement yesterday, Maduekwe explained that moral hazard arises when states receive revenue regardless of their contribution to national income, which in turn disincentivises innovation and competitiveness.
On the principal-agent problem, she said it stems from a structure where the Federal Government controls the nation’s wealth and makes decisions that directly affect citizens, while states, which depend on federally pooled and distributed revenue they do not control, are expected to deliver on the lived experiences of their residents.
She warned that this disconnect encourages a politics of finger-pointing, where neither tier of government is fully accountable.
Maduekwe stressed that the Federal Government should focus on coordination, standard-setting, and national-scale projects such as transmission infrastructure and cross-border energy trade.
“Nigeria’s energy crisis is a political problem dressed up as a technical one. If the constitutional review process is bold enough to correct the deeper incentives, to reward innovation, demand accountability, and let states take ownership of their economic future, then we will have done more than pass another set of amendments. We will have taken the first real step toward building a federation that works,” she stated.
The PUTTTU boss added, “Nigeria does not need ‘restructuring’ in the traditional sense, especially not one that creates a new supra-government tier. That would only replicate the same principal-agent dysfunction in time. What Nigeria needs is decentralisation: of responsibilities, of decision-making, and of control over resources, all where they matter most, the states.”
Maduekwe also commended the current administration for its efforts at reforming the power sector.
“The current administration deserves credit for its political courage. In particular, its unbundling of Nigeria’s electricity law shows a willingness to confront long-standing bottlenecks,” she said.
She noted that the 2023 Electricity Act set a vital precedent, saying, “For the first time, states now have legal authority to operate their own electricity markets. This is the kind of decentralisation Nigeria needs across the board.
