DARKNESS BY DESIGN

How can a nation blessed with vast natural gas reserves, abundant sunshine, enormous hydroelectric potential, and extraordinary human talent remain trapped in an electricity crisis that has lasted for generations?

Why have decades of government promises, billions in public and private investment, repeated institutional reforms, and the privatisation of electricity companies failed to deliver dependable power to millions of Nigerians?

And who should be held accountable when the lights refuse to stay on?

In Darkness by Design, Bishop Dr. Sylvester Asobo delivers an examination of the political decisions, institutional weaknesses, financial challenges, and failures of implementation that have shaped Nigeria's electricity industry for more than a century.

Beginning with the introduction of electricity in colonial Lagos in 1896, the book traces the development of Nigeria's power sector through the creation of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), the electricity reforms of 2005, the privatisation of generation and distribution companies in 2013, and the opportunities and challenges created by the Electricity Act 2023.

The book explores the uncomfortable relationship between political leadership, regulatory decisions, infrastructure investment, electricity tariffs, government subsidies, international development financing, and the everyday suffering of Nigerian citizens.

It also examines the controversy surrounding the cancellation of approximately US$717.7 million in undisbursed World Bank financing associated with Nigeria's Power Sector Recovery Programme, distinguishing documented financial facts from political interpretations.

Through thirty substantive chapters, readers will discover:

• How Nigeria's electricity system developed and why its structural weaknesses persist.
• Why installed generating capacity does not automatically translate into electricity delivered to consumers.
• How transmission constraints, distribution losses, inadequate metering, and unpaid financial obligations undermine the sector.
• The economic and human consequences of unreliable electricity for businesses, factories, hospitals, schools, and households.
• How tariffs, subsidies, fuel costs, inflation, and foreign-exchange pressures influence electricity affordability and investment.
• What Nigeria can learn from electricity reforms and infrastructure development in other countries.
• Why institutional accountability, credible regulation, financial discipline, and political consistency are essential to lasting reform.

But Darkness by Design is more than an investigation of past failures.

It is also a call for national transformation.

In its concluding chapters, the author presents a proposed National Electricity Accountability Charter, outlining practical principles for transparent leadership, measurable institutional performance, consumer protection, infrastructure maintenance, responsible investment, and sustainable electricity development.

Written for policymakers, energy professionals, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and concerned citizens, this book challenges Nigeria to move beyond political promises and embrace the discipline of measurable results.

Nigeria does not lack the resources to build a brighter future. The challenge is to make the decisions, strengthen the institutions, and sustain the reforms necessary to achieve it.

Darkness by Design is a compelling call to replace decades of electricity frustration with responsible leadership, national accountability, and a renewed commitment to economic prosperity.

The darkness has lasted long enough. The time has come to move from darkness to dominion.