Tuesday 14 April, 2026

Bola Tinubu, 71, at Yakubu Gowon Airport, Jos. "You have no light here. I fly out in ten minutes."

On April 2, President Tinubu flew to Plateau State to console families of the people killed in the Palm Sunday massacre at Angwan Rukuba. At least 28 people died in that attack. Tinubu met with families and community leaders at a hall next to Yakubu Gowon Airport.

He stayed for about ten minutes. He gave his condolences, promised the killings would not happen again, and left. Part of the explanation his office gave for the brevity was that the airport doesn't support night flights. But Tinubu himself gave another reason.

He said the airport had no electricity. "You have no light here. I fly out in ten minutes."

Peter Obi posted that clip the same day, next to a recording of Tinubu's 2023 campaign speech. "If I don't give you constant electricity in four years, don't vote for me for a second term."

Both clips are real. Both are from the same man.

When Tinubu took office in 2023, Nigeria's average power generation was above 4,000 megawatts. It is now below that figure. Electricity tariffs have risen. The government has just committed N3.3 trillion to settle debts in the sector. And the president of Nigeria could not stay at a Nigerian state airport for more than ten minutes because it had no power.

Here is what makes this moment complicated rather than simple.

Tinubu didn't create Nigeria's power crisis. The grid was broken before him, during Jonathan's administration, during Buhari's administration. The N3.3 trillion settlement is the most substantial attempt any Nigerian government has made to address the sector's structural debt. That is true.

And the promise he made in 2023 was specific. Constant electricity in four years. He made it freely. He made it in public. He is three years in. The airport in Jos had no lights.

Both things are true at the same time. He is trying to fix a system he didn't break. And the man who promised not to be voted back in without fixing it just explained why he couldn't stay at an airport by pointing to the thing he promised to fix.

The question Nigeria will have to answer before 2027 isn't whether the promise was realistic. It's whether the promise was made by someone who understood what he was promising. Or someone who was willing to say whatever the moment required.