…Demands unfiltered truth

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, urged stakeholders in the power sector to end the culture of blackouts in the state, the country at large and stop giving excuses inorder to build resilient, progressive economy.

Sanwo-Olu, in company of his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, made the remark on Thursday, at a stakeholders’ meeting tagged: Lagos State Government high-level strategic town hall meeting on ending the culture of blackouts and building a sustainable 24 /7 power economy in Lagos State” held at State House, Marina.

Also in attendance are: some members of the State Executive council. The forum brought together key public and private sector leaders to formulate concrete action plans for achieving reliable, 24 hours power in the State. The event also featured prominent representatives from key corporate and regulatory bodies, including; the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), as well as state power authorities such as the Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission (LASERC) and the Independent System Operator.

Delivering a frank and impassioned address, Sanwo-Olu called on stakeholders “to drop corporate egos, abandon long-standing excuses, and confront the harsh realities obstructing progress in the power sector.”

The governor acknowledged the frustration felt across both public and private sectors regarding repeated discussions that yield little practical outcome. He noted that “following recent decentralization and regulatory unbundling in Nigeria’s energy sector—which empowered state institutions to manage independent power architectures—states can no longer blame centralized federal control for stagnant progress.

“We, state governments, we used to give excuses that everything is centralized, so the Federal Government has unbundled it now. What have we done in a year and a half,?” the governor remarked, stressing that despite establishing local institutions like LASERC, power supply challenges remain severe. “We take two steps forward, we go five steps backward.”

Sanwo-Olu , therefore, called for an open, “gloves-off” dialogue aimed at identifying systemic flaws, shortfalls on the side of government, and performance gaps within the private sector.

He emphasized that the goal of the closed-door interactive session was to move beyond dialogue and develop a functional, actionable roadmap to deliver dependable electricity to Lagos residents and businesses.

The forum subsequently, excused journalists in attendance before going into a closed-door session for hours.