The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has issued a public apology to Nigerians for the crippling and persistent outages that have occurred in the previous month, conceding that the blackout has exacerbated suffering in households, companies, schools, and industries under the searing dry season heat.
The apology was issued at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
It comes as public anger with inconsistent power supply grows, especially as rising temperatures across the country increase electrical demand for cooling.
In an unusually direct acknowledgement of the crisis, Adelabu said, “I want to apologize 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 current setbacks, Adelabu assured Nigerians that relief is imminent, giving a definitive timeline for improvement in supply.
“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,” Adelabu said.
According to him, the government already knows when important repairs, notably those involving facilities managed by Seplat Energy, will be finished, which is likely to restore gas flow to power plants.
He also stated that a special committee has been formed to check producers’ compliance with domestic gas supply obligations, which has long been blamed for restraining 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 flows to gas suppliers would further incentivize supply.
The findings show that Nigeria’s power sector, which is heavily reliant on gas-fired plants, has been impacted by gas supply delays, exacerbated by pipeline maintenance issues and cash restrictions.
Adelabu acknowledged these fundamental concerns, stating that, while they were not totally under the government’s control, attempts were being made to stabilize 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,” according to him.
The minister also reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to increasing power generation to 6,000 megawatts by the end of 2026, describing the current disruption as a temporary departure from a larger improvement strategy.
“Power generation will improve, transmission will improve, distribution will improve, and those 6,000 megawatts will be achieved before the end of this year, and Nigerians will be better for it,” he assured.
He also stated that the government’s ambition is not just to recover lost ground but 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,” Adelabu said.
