Adamawa Approves N598m to End Borrong’s Power Nightmare

For the people of the Borrong community in the Demsa Local Government Area, electricity has never been something they could take for granted. Year after year, when the rains came and the River Benue swelled, the lights would go out, sometimes for weeks. The reason was always the same: a fragile transmission tower perched on a small island in the middle of the river, battered by floodwaters until it gave way.

That long-running frustration may now be on its way out.

The Adamawa State Executive Council has approved the sum of N598 million to reroute the electricity supply from Wuro Nyanka in the Shelleng Local Government Area to Borrong in the Demsa LGA, cutting out the vulnerable river crossing entirely. The decision, taken at a council meeting chaired by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri on Wednesday, marks what many in the community are calling a long-overdue step toward reliable power supply.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr James Iliya, announced the approval while briefing journalists after the meeting. He said the project would provide Borrong with an alternative electricity supply route through transmission towers from Wuro Nyanka, bypassing the River Benue altogether. The contract is expected to be completed within three months.

It is the kind of news that lands differently in a community that has lived with chronic power cuts for years. For residents of Borrong, the failure of electricity supply has not just been an inconvenience; it has meant spoilt goods, disrupted businesses, and the grinding uncertainty of never knowing when the next outage will arrive.

The Commissioner for Rural Infrastructure and Community Development, Mr Solomon Titus, shed more light on just how persistent the problem has been. He explained that flooding of the River Benue regularly weakens and erodes the existing tower located on the island at the centre of the river, triggering frequent collapses and plunging the community back into darkness.

“The government’s decision to reroute the electricity line is aimed at providing a lasting and economically viable solution to the problem,” Titus said.

That phrase, ‘lasting solution’, carries particular weight when you understand what the community has endured. The island tower was never a sustainable answer. It was always a compromise, and every rainy season turned it into a liability. The new route, running overland through fresh transmission infrastructure, is designed to remove that vulnerability at its root.

Wednesday’s council session also approved the procurement of a vehicle for the Ministry of Environment at the cost of N164 million. The contract for the vehicle was awarded to Triacta Nigeria Limited, with delivery also expected within three months.

For The Gazette News (Nigeria), the Borrong electricity story is bigger than the project itself. It reflects a pattern that rural communities across the country know well – where essential infrastructure is built in ways that make it difficult to maintain and where the people most affected are often the last to benefit from a fix.

The approval of N598 million for the rerouting is, at its core, an acknowledgement that the old approach wasn’t working. Rather than continue patching a system that flood seasons will always undo, the state government has opted to change the route – and with it, the community’s relationship with a reliable power supply.

Whether the project delivers on its three-month timeline will be the measure that matters most to the people of Borrong. They have heard promises before. What they are waiting for now is the steady hum of electricity that stays on when the rains come, when the river rises, and when the night falls.

If the rerouting succeeds, it won’t just be a win for Borrong. It will be a model worth replicating for every Nigerian community still living with infrastructure that floods, collapses, and fails on a seasonal schedule.