The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has publicly apologised to Nigerians over the prolonged and severe outages recorded in the past month, admitting that the blackout has worsened hardship in homes, businesses, schools and industries amid the intense dry-season heat.
He made the apology during a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
The apology follows growing public anger over unstable electricity supply, especially as rising temperatures across the country have pushed up demand for cooling.
In a rare direct admission of the crisis, 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 disruptions, the minister assured Nigerians that the situation would soon improve and gave a clear timeline for better 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 key repairs, especially those involving Seplat Energy facilities, will be completed, which should help restore gas supply to power plants.
He explained that a special committee has been set up to monitor how gas producers comply with domestic gas supply obligations to power plants, 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 better payment to gas suppliers would also encourage improved supply.
Findings show that Nigeria’s electricity sector, which depends heavily on gas-fired plants, has been affected by gas supply disruptions made worse by pipeline maintenance problems and liquidity challenges.
Adelabu acknowledged these deeper issues, saying that although they are not entirely within the government’s control, steps are being taken to stabilise the sector.
“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 said.
The minister also restated the Federal Government’s goal of increasing electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026, describing the current disruption as a temporary setback within a broader recovery plan.
“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,” he assured.
He added that the government’s target is not only to regain lost ground but to outperform earlier results.
“If we could provide such service in 2025, this is 2026, we are willing to do more, to even do better,” Adelabu said.
Nigeria’s power sector has for years faced both structural and operational challenges, including poor gas supply, ageing infrastructure, transmission bottlenecks and persistent liquidity issues across the value chain.
