Column

There was a delusion that the privatization of the power sector – an existing, dilapidated monopoly – would be as straightforward and eventually beneficial as the transformative liberalization of the telecommunications industry. What we are now witnessing is the shattering of that illusion, with the critical failure of the electricity sector. The entire framework was rushed, ill-conceived, and frankly, a disgrace to Nigeria. As with many things in Nigeria, a political elite, in a moment of cynical opportunism and historical amnesia, miscalculated that the success of the telecommunications sector would be effortlessly replicated. This was an almost ridiculously naive assumption,…