I Apologise, Power Minister, Adelabu Begs Nigerians Over Outages
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has tendered a public apology to Nigerians over the crippling and persistent outages witnessed in the last month, admitting the blackout has deepened hardship across homes, businesses, schools and industries amid the scorching dry-season heat.
Adelabu made the apology during a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
It comes amid intensifying public frustration over erratic power supply, particularly as soaring temperatures across the country have increased electricity demand for cooling.
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 current setbacks, the minister 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 has visibility on when key repairs, particularly those involving facilities operated by Seplat Energy, will be completed, a development expected to restore gas flow to power plants.
He explained that a special committee has also been constituted to monitor compliance with domestic gas supply obligations by producers, a long-standing issue blamed for constraining 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 incentivise supply.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
