By Achile Danjuma
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, issued a public apology on Tuesday for the persistent nationwide power outages that have plagued the country over the past month, acknowledging that the crisis has exacerbated hardship for households, businesses, and industries during an intense dry season.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Adelabu delivered an unusually direct mea culpa amid growing public frustration, as soaring temperatures have simultaneously increased the demand for electricity for cooling.
“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,” he said. “Businesses are being affected, schools have been affected, and industries have been affected.”
While attributing the current crisis to factors “beyond our control,” the minister provided a definitive timeline for recovery, assuring citizens that improvements will begin within two weeks. He cited the establishment of a special committee, commitments from gas suppliers, and a scheduled timeline for critical pipeline repairs—particularly on facilities operated by Seplat Energy—as key to restoring gas flow to power plants.
“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,” Adelabu stated.
To prevent future disruptions, the minister noted that a committee has been formed to enforce domestic gas supply obligations—a long-standing bottleneck for generation. He added that improving payment flows to suppliers would further stabilize the system.
Adelabu acknowledged that Nigeria’s gas-dependent power sector has been undercut by a combination of supply disruptions, pipeline maintenance issues, and liquidity constraints. He described the current instability as a temporary deviation from the sector’s recent progress.
Despite the setbacks, the minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ramping up generation capacity to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026, pledging improvements across transmission and distribution as well.
“If we could provide such service in 2025, this is 2026, we are willing to do more, to even do better,” Adelabu said. “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.”
The Nigerian electricity sector continues to grapple with deep-rooted structural issues, including aging infrastructure, transmission bottlenecks, and liquidity shortfalls across the value chain.