SIR: On October 21, the governments of Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa signed an agreement to establish a regional electricity market, pledging to raise N50 billion to expand access to power across their states.
At the Marrakech Electrification Summit, where the pact was sealed, officials from the three states stood side by side, announcing their plan not only to share costs but to take equity in Future Energies Africa (FEA), the core investor in Kano Electricity Distribution Company. The goal is to fix power distribution from the ground up, together.
The N50 billion investments might seem modest compared to the billions Nigeria borrows yearly for less coherent projects, but the symbolism matters. For once, three governors are not waiting for Abuja’s permission to act. They’re choosing self-help over dependency, efficiency over rhetoric.
They’re also making a bet on the Electricity Act 2023, which devolves power generation and distribution to states.
For all the promise of this northern initiative, the real tragedy is how rare such cooperation has become. Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones — Northwest, Northeast, North-central, Southwest, Southeast, and South-south — rarely collaborate on anything meaningful.
Imagine if states across Nigeria pooled resources to tackle problems regionally: Southeast states could jointly revive the Enugu coal belt or set up shared logistics hubs for Aba and Onitsha. Southwest states could jointly manage the Lagos-Ibadan corridor’s transport and industrial ecosystem. North-central states could form agricultural processing zones powered by renewable energy.
Each zone has comparative advantages. What’s missing is collective will.
Of course, cooperation isn’t magic. The Kano-Katsina-Jigawa alliance faces real challenges. The sum, N50 billion is small compared to what’s needed to transform energy access. Political continuity is fragile — one election cycle can derail years of planning. The federal transmission grid still sits under Abuja’s control, requiring alignment that often slows things down.
But the alternative of each state acting alone is far worse. As things stand, most state-owned initiatives collapse before they scale. A joint regional framework can attract better financing, and spread innovation faster.
If northern states can make this model work, they could provide a template for others. It would show that Nigeria doesn’t need more states; it needs smarter states.
We already have lessons on what happens when Nigerian leaders collaborate across borders. When Chief Awolowo’s Western Region shared agricultural strategies with the North in the 1950s, both regions grew. When the River Basin Authorities in the 1970s worked jointly across state lines, irrigation and food production improved before corruption and politics ruined the system.
The lesson endures: development thrives when leadership looks beyond state boundaries.
Today, it’s time for governors to rediscover that old spirit of partnership. Let them form regional councils not for press releases, but for projects. Let them share expertise and markets.
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