The 10th Senate has began the process of amending the Electricity Act, 2023, to criminalise critical electricity infrastructure vandalism across the country, due to rising wave of recurrent sabotage by vandals.
When amended, passed and signed into law, it would help clarify ongoing transitional provisions for the transfer of intra-state electricity matters from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to state governments, especially matters relating to operation of the national grid system and other overlapping issues.
The bill, sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, APGA, Abia South, yesterday scaled second reading. Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, thereafter, referred it to the committee on power for further legislative action and report back at plenary in six weeks.
The bill is also designed to re-define and make provision for a sector-wide framework to guide host community engagements by licensees operating in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, across the power value chain, remove inherent ambiguities in a few provisions of the Principal Act to allow for clarity, elegance and smooth implementation. It will equally fortify existing institutional and legal frameworks of the NESI.
During debate on the general principles of the bill, Akpabio said without electricity, there would be no way for industrial growth in the country, adding that everyone was looking forward to a total overhaul of the electricity sector.
Akpabio also told Nigerians that as senators, they were not out to make money but sacrifice for the future.
“People think we are here in the Senate to make money, not knowing we are here to sacrifice for future generation,” he said.
In his lead debate on the general principles of the bill, Senator Abaribe, who disclosed that the Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was read the first time on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, said, among others: “The primary objective of this bill is to address critical issues that have emerged since the Implementation of the EA, 2023. Specifically, the bill seeks to introduce provisions that will enhance policy and regulatory coordination between national and sub-national governments to avoid legal disputes and inconsistencies.
“It also seeks to strengthen sectoral financing in the face of crippling sector debt crisis: Criminalise critical electricity infrastructure vandalism in the face of the rising wave of recurrent sabotage by vandals; foster industrial relations in the sector by balancing labour rights in the context of essential services as recognised by domestic and international best labour practices and instruments.
“It is equally to clarify ongoing transitional provisions for the transfer of intrastate electricity matters from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to state governments, especially matters having bearing on the operation of the national grid system and other overlapping issues.”
On background to the proposed amendment bill, Abaribe explained that “the current state of NESI has been an issue of concern to the 10th Senate and even previous Senate.
“This Senate recently mandated the committee on power to undertake a diagnostic appraisal and investigation into the Nigerian power sector, following disenchantment expressed and motions moved by some of my distinguished colleagues here in this hallowed chamber.
“Without pre-empting the decision the Senate is likely to take on the committee’s findings and recommendations at the appropriate me, one cannot resist the temptation to say that our findings are mind-boggling.
“With pervasive operational constraints across the power value chain and crippling debt crisis running into trillions of naira, the power sector is hanging on a cliff and requires immediate and drastic action to rescue it from total collapse.
“This bill should, therefore, be seen as part of the broader efforts to salvage the power sector from imminent collapse.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Buhari Abdulfatai, APC, Oyo North, contributed to the debate, that “Critical infrastructure vandalism must be met with serious punitive measures. Vandals often return within weeks after release. Without strong punishment, it continues.”
