The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has tendered a public apology to Nigerians over the crippling and persistent power outages witnessed in the last month, admitting that the blackout has worsened hardship across homes, businesses, schools, and industries amid the scorching dry-season heat.
The apology was delivered during a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
It comes amid rising public frustration over erratic power supply, especially as high temperatures across the country have increased electricity demand for cooling.
In a rare and direct acknowledgement of the situation, Adelabu said: “I want to apologise to Nigerians, officially now, coming from me as the Minister of Power, for this temporary issue that is leading to hardship being experienced, especially during this dry season, where there is so much heat everywhere.
“Businesses are being affected, schools have been affected, and industries have been affected. It is not our wish to find ourselves in this situation, but it is due to some factors that are actually beyond our control.”
Despite the challenges, the minister assured Nigerians that improvements in power supply would begin soon.
“I can tell you, with the committee that we have set up, and commitments from gas suppliers, and the timeline for repair of the gas pipelines, two weeks from now, we should start seeing improvements in supply. Two weeks.”
He explained that the government has clear timelines for key repairs, particularly those involving facilities operated by Seplat Energy, which are expected to restore gas supply to power plants.
Adelabu also disclosed that a special committee has been set up to monitor compliance with domestic gas supply obligations by producers—an issue long blamed for limiting electricity generation.
“We already have a committee that is working on this to track compliance with the domestic supply obligations of these gas companies to our power plants,” he said, adding that improved payment structures would further encourage gas supply.
Findings indicate that Nigeria’s power sector, which relies heavily on gas-fired plants, has been affected by disruptions in gas supply, worsened by pipeline maintenance issues and liquidity challenges.
The minister acknowledged these structural problems but assured that efforts are ongoing to stabilise the system.
“We are working on it 24/7 to make sure that we go back to the trajectory of 2025, when Nigerians commended us for a good job well done.”
He further reiterated the Federal Government’s target of increasing electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026, describing the current situation as temporary.
“Power generation will improve, transmission will improve, distribution will improve, and that 6,000 megawatts will be achieved before the end of this year, and Nigerians will be better for it.”
According to him, the government aims not only to recover lost ground but also to surpass previous performance levels.
“If we could provide such service in 2025, this is 2026, we are willing to do more, to even do better.”
Nigeria’s electricity sector continues to face longstanding challenges, including inadequate gas supply, ageing infrastructure, transmission bottlenecks, and persistent liquidity issues across the value chain.
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