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Claim: A Facebook blogger asserts that Russian President Vladimir Putin is building a nuclear power plant for Nigeria to get stable electricity.
Verdict: False! The news report is from 2018, and there is no recent news report on the alleged development.
Full Text
The electricity sector has recently experienced several challenges relating to policy enforcement, regulatory uncertainty, gas supply, transmission system constraints, and major power sector planning shortfalls.
This is because of the country’s poor transmission network and incessant national grid collapse.
Jenny’s Blog on Facebook shared that Vladimir Putin is building a nuclear power plant in Nigeria to provide stable electricity. The video stated that Nigeria would receive a 24-hour supply of light.
The blog shared that the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, signed the electricity deal with the Russian government, which will be effective from July 2024 in Warri, Delta State.
The claim garnered 31 likes, ten comments, and 38 shares since it was posted on March 9, 2024. Different versions of the claim were seen here, here, and here.
The virality of the claim, the personalities involved, and the sensitive nature of the post made DUBAWA verify it.
Verification
We conducted a keyword search to see if there were any reports on the development and came across a news report by Premium Times on Jan. 6, 2018. The report noted that at a meeting in Abu Dhabi in October 2017, Russia signed an agreement with Nigeria to build and operate a nuclear power plant, the first of its kind on the continent, and a research centre to house a nuclear research reactor.
We also saw another report by Punch on July 30, 2023, that stated Russian companies were involved in 30 new power projects in Nigeria and 15 other African countries. The projects were expected to generate about 3.7 gigawatts of electricity.
Other reports also noted the agreement between both countries at different times in 2017, here and here.
We checked the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) website but did not find any report or publication on this latest agreement between both countries.
We tried to reach the presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, through an email for a response on the issue but could not get any response.
Conclusion
The report is an old one from 2018. Also, no reputable news organisation has recently reported any deal agreement between Nigeria and Russia.
