Nigeria is sitting on 215 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves. This is the largest in Africa. This is sufficient to meet domestic needs for generations. Despite this, the country’s thermal power plants received only 43 per cent of their gas requirement as national generation drooped to about 4,000 megawatts and birthed blackouts stretching for days. Factories idled with households firing expensive diesel generators whose fuel costs have soared with global prices. And we again face the familiar old but costly paradox of Nigeria as a gas-rich country that imports volatility.