by My Engineers
As the Nigerian power sector continues to grapple with a myriad of challenges, the persistent problem of vandalism is taking its toil and threatening the country’s efforts to address the challenge.
A recent report revealed that the Federal Government, through the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has incurred significant costs to repair power transmission towers damaged by vandals. According to the data obtained from TCN, between January 2022 and October 2024, a total of N29.3 billion was spent to repair 266 towers across the country.
These incidents, which occurred in key regions such as Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Bauchi, Port Harcourt, and Benin, have had far-reaching consequences for Nigeria’s power supply. The vandalism has disrupted power transmission, leading to frequent blackouts and power outages across the country.
A Growing Crisis
A breakdown of the report showed that 90 towers were destroyed in 2022. This figure increased by 23.3 per cent to 111 towers in 2023. In the current year, electricity tower vandalism occurred 65 times between January and October 27, 2024.
Further analysis showed that in 2022, 21 towers on the 132kv Kano-Kankia transmission line two were destroyed, and 16 towers were damaged under the Kano-Kankia line one.
Similarly, 19 towers on the Makurdi-Jos double circuit transmission line were vandalised, among others.
In 2023, 15 towers on the 132kv Owerri-Ahaoda transmission line in Port-Harcourt were damaged and 13 towers on the 132kv Ahaoda-Yenegoa transmission line were vandalised.
Also, 122 earthen conductors, 244 galvanised bolts, nuts, and copper cable lugs from the remaining towers were stolen.
Among the notable incidents in the first ten months of 2024 was the collapse of Tower 388 on the 132kV Jos-Bauchi line in the Bauchi/Yelwa single circuit transmission line, as were Towers 377 and 378 on the 330kV Gombe-Damaturu line along Bauchi/Gombe and Damaturu. Additional collapses were reported on the 330kV Damaturu-Maiduguri line, including Towers 125, 126, 193, 194, and 195.
In the Bauchi-Gombe area, 450, 452, 453, and 455 on the 132kV line were vandalised, and Tower 70 on the 330kV Gwagwalada-Katampe line in Abuja saw four of its footings destroyed. Vandals also carted tower members of the 330kv Jos-Gombe from towers 288 to 291.
TCN contracts out the repairs of some of the vandalised towers. It had also deployed in-house engineers of the transmission company to work on other vandalised towers.
The Toll on the Economy
The economic impact of these attacks is significant. A recent report by Standard Bank estimated that Nigeria loses approximately $26 billion annually due to power failures. This figure excludes the costs of off-grid power solutions, lost productivity, and other economic losses.
Businesses, especially those in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, are particularly affected by unreliable power supply, as they spend about $22bn annually on off-grid fuel to offset the impact of power shortages leading to increased operational costs and reduced output.
Commenting, an expert in the energy sector, Professor Wumi Iledare, stated that tower vandalism is criminal and hinders the government’s commitment to increase energy accessibility, affordability, and availability. He said vandalism discourages investments and increases energy costs.
The expert, speaking in an interview, said, “The act of vandalisation is criminal. There are three important things to keep in mind anytime you look at vandalization. When there is an incident, three important things are compromised. You are compromising energy availability, making energy accessibility more difficult and, finally, affecting energy affordability. This is because energy costs will go up anytime the transmission company has to incur extra costs and that cost will be transferred to the consumer.
“It’s an act of criminality to vandalise assets and should be treated as such. In a civilised economy, such a person will be taken to court and prosecuted. This also shows why an unskilled population is very dangerous and our politicians are making governance more difficult. This type of behaviour makes it more difficult for people to invest in the sector which is supposed to increase energy accessibility. The economic implications are enormous. The cost incurred by services provided to grow the economy is also affected. The government must begin to prosecute offenders for this.”
Hampered by Insecurity
Meanwhile, the TCN said it is collaborating with the Office of the National Security Adviser to repair the vandalised Shiroro-Kaduna line that led to the reduction of bulk electricity to Kaduna, Kano, and other major cities in the north.
In an earlier statement, the General Manager of Public Affairs, TCN, Ndidi Mbah, said the firm is working diligently to restore bulk power supply as quickly as possible despite prevailing security challenges.
The statement read, “The current outage affecting Northern states for several days now is a result of vandalism of the Shiroro-Mando transmission line—a critical infrastructure that supplies electricity to the region. Prevailing insecurity in the area has delayed the immediate repair necessary to restore supply.
“However, as a temporary measure, TCN had rerouted bulk power supply through the Ugwuaji-Apir 330kV line, which recently snapped.
“TCN has been collaborating closely with the Office of the National Security Adviser to work with our engineers to access the vandalism site to enable them to effect necessary repairs. This is vital to ensure the safety of lives during the repairs.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to overcoming these challenges because we understand the place of electricity in the socio-economic lives of the people and the extreme inconveniences this situation is causing the government and all electricity customers in all the affected areas.
Vandalism is terrorism
At a briefing organised by the Transmission Company of Nigeria in Abuja the Minister of Power Chief Adelabu explained that while attacks on the transmission lines were not new, the current spate that has left 15 states in the north without grid power supply was done by terrorists.
“This is not the first time we will be having issues in that line. We’ve had vandalism there before but nobody noticed it because we fixed it within days. But this time it was more severe and the repairs were delayed because of security threats.”
The minister noted that there is a bill before the National Assembly for capital punishment for perpetrators of vandalism.
“We want stiffer punishment for these criminals. Also, we need to look at stopping the sale of scrap metals in the country. They are those who encourage vandalism because they buy these things from criminals cheaply.”
States/Regional Grid on table
Earlier, Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, proposed having states or regional grids so that a problem in a particular line, will not affect the other.
“Let me tell you, the truth of the matter is we have old infrastructure. We have a national grid that is more than 50 years old. We have national grid whose transmission lines are weak, the towers are falling, and the substations, the transformers are old. In fact, the transformer that actually exploded in Jeba was 47 years old. We’ve been trying to revamp this, to change them, but they cannot all be changed overnight.
“So it’s like you’re having a rickety car. You’ll be expecting breakdown once in a while. What we continue to do is continue to manage the grid to prevent frequent occurrence of the grid disturbance, until we’re able to completely overhaul the grid itself, then we’ll have reliable grid.
“Secondly, we are working on establishing what is called a super grid, which is a backup of failover, optional grid. If the national grid has a problem, there will be an alternative route through which power can be transmitted. That is what we are working on.
“Then lastly, is the fact that the world has moved beyond having a centralized grid. Grid must be regionalized. We must have state grids, so that each of the regionalized grid will be insulated from each other. A problem in a particular line will not affect the others.
“That is what we are working on. Until that is done, we believe that we’ll keep managing what we have and reduce the frequent occurrence of the grid disturbance.”