The clash is shaping up as a crucial test of legislative authority and accountability in Nigeria’s fast-expanding renewable energy space.
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – A sharp disagreement has erupted in the House of Representatives following what members of the Committee on Renewable Energy describe as an attempt to scuttle their ongoing probe into the activities and funding of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
The Renewable Energy Committee is investigating the utilisation of over $2 billion in renewable energy grants and investments between 2015 and 2024, focusing on alleged mismanagement, weak project execution and limited impact in the power sector.
At its inaugural hearing last Tuesday, the committee resolved to seek the intervention of the Inspector General of Police to compel the attendance of REA’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, who had repeatedly failed to honour invitations. Two lawmakers who sit on both the Renewable Energy and REA Committees confirmed that the MD had a history of declining appearances, often citing official engagements.
Following the motion, Aliyu delegated the agency’s Executive Director, Corporate Services, Mr. Gboyega Ayoade, to attend Wednesday’s session. Ayoade told lawmakers the MD intended to appear personally but was unavoidably engaged elsewhere. The committee, however, directed Aliyu to appear unfailingly on Tuesday, March 3.
The controversy deepened a day later when the Renewable Energy Committee received a letter from the House Committee on REA requesting that the probe be suspended on grounds that it was already conducting an inquiry on similar subject matter.
In the February 25, 2026 letter addressed through the Office of the Speaker, Chairman of the REA Committee, Hon. Mohammed Bukar Ibrahim, acknowledged the investigative hearing but stated that his committee was already examining issues “touching on the activities, financing, and programme implementation of the Rural Electrification Agency, including matters relating to grants, loans, and project domiciliation from 2015 to date.”
He maintained that the REA Committee was undertaking “a comprehensive review and oversight of the same subject areas, specifically the utilisation of funds, project delivery, institutional performance, and compliance within the Agency’s operations.” Parallel investigations, he warned, could result in “duplication of legislative activity, potential procedural conflicts, and avoidable administrative strain on the Agency and other stakeholders.”
The letter urged that, “in the interest of coherence, institutional clarity, and the efficient exercise of the House’s oversight responsibilities,” all matters directly concerning the agency should be coordinated through the REA Committee. It requested the Renewable Energy Committee to “stay further proceedings as they relate specifically to the REA and await the outcome” of its review, promising to brief House leadership and relevant committees upon conclusion to ensure alignment.
However, the Renewable Energy Committee rejected the request. In a February 26 response titled Re: Ongoing investigation into renewable energy projects and activities of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), its Chairman, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene, described the REA Committee’s position as “misleading” and indicative of “a little understanding of the Resolutions of the House, which necessitated the investigations in the first instance.”
He clarified that the hearing “is not about the ‘activities of the Rural Electrification Agency,’” but is anchored on House resolutions mandating investigations into “the domiciliation of the Green Energy projects with inappropriate entities to avert substandard implementation and loss of values; the investigation of renewable energy sector and foreign grants received from 2015 till date and need for utilisation of renewable energy in ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.”
Citing the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives (Eleventh Edition), Ogene noted that the Committee on Renewable Energy has jurisdiction over “all departments and agencies concerned with renewable energy.” He stressed that the panel was neither on a “fishing expedition” nor attempting to scrutinise the agency’s personnel costs, overheads or core capital expenditure.
“It is, indeed, the considered opinion of the Committee on Renewable Energy, that such practices of rushing to shield MDAs from accountability on account of any considerations, attracts disrespect to the institution of the Legislature and undermine the integrity of legislative processes and should be discouraged,” he wrote, describing the request as an “ill-advised intrusion” into an assignment given by the entire House and formally declining it.
The probe stems from a House resolution adopted on October 22, 2025, empowering the committee under Sections 62, 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to conduct “a comprehensive audit of renewable energy interventions under the Rural Electrification Agency, particularly those implemented under the Energising Education Programme Phases I, II, and III.”
As part of the investigation, the committee has invited contractors and developers involved in the programme to appear with contract award letters, agreements, engineering drawings, bills of quantities, feasibility studies, commissioning certificates, sustainability and maintenance plans, variation records, warranties and handover documents. The exercise aims to verify compliance with due process and procurement standards, assess project quality and sustainability readiness, and prevent loss of value.
The inquiry covers major solar hybrid installations in federal universities and teaching hospitals nationwide under the Energising Education Programme, one of Nigeria’s flagship renewable energy initiatives funded by billions of naira in public and foreign grants. Designed to deliver stable electricity to federal universities and teaching hospitals while reducing reliance on diesel generators, the programme has faced persistent concerns over project quality, sustainability frameworks and transparency in contract awards.
Sources within the House describe the unfolding standoff as a turf battle over jurisdiction, with significant implications for transparency in the renewable energy sector. While the REA Committee insists that oversight of the agency properly belongs to it, the Renewable Energy Committee maintains that its mandate transcends agency boundaries to cover renewable energy interventions across all MDAs.
A ranking lawmaker familiar with the development warned that any effort to block the probe “raises serious questions about institutional rivalry and the willingness of lawmakers to subject sensitive power-sector projects to full scrutiny,” stressing that the House had issued a clear mandate.
With both committees holding firm, the clash is shaping up as a crucial test of legislative authority and accountability in Nigeria’s fast-expanding renewable energy space. The hearing resumes Tuesday.