Public affairs commentator Mahdi Shehu criticises Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, for comments Tegbe makes about electricity improvements. Shehu, in a post on X late Wednesday, says the minister’s remarks are false and misleading, accusing him of presenting an “irredeemable lie.”
The dispute follows Tegbe’s remarks at the commissioning of a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at the University of Abuja on Wednesday. Tegbe says federal interventions have improved electricity supply in some areas, where residents who previously had no power for three months are now receiving electricity for up to 18 hours daily. Tegbe adds that some people called him to ask him to slow down, saying their freezers were freezing.
Across the outlets, the core details are the same: Shehu publicly challenges Tegbe’s “freezer is freezing” explanation, and Tegbe’s comments are tied to the university project commissioning and his description of increased electricity availability. The outlets mainly differ in how they characterise Shehu’s language—using emphatic phrasing about an “irredeemable lie”—but the underlying claim being contested is consistent.
