Adebayo Olowoniyi, the Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister of Power, has stated that as repair work on a significant gas pipeline gets closer to completion, Nigerians should start to observe a steady improvement in the supply of energy.
During an appearance on Arise Television on Thursday, Olowoniyi made this statement, pointing out that the complete restoration of gas supplies to power plants is anticipated within the next two weeks.
His comments follow a public apology by Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, for the ongoing power outages that have impacted families, companies, and industries around the nation.
Olowoniyi defended the minister’s actions, arguing that the apology showed leadership rather than an admission of personal accountability.
He stated, “I think, first of all, I’d like to start with the apology from the Honourable Minister, which we believe is all about taking leadership in the sector.”
“As the Minister of Power, he just took—it was the right leadership step to say, okay, I take ownership of this issue and I’m going to prefer a solution that would ensure power supply comes back in the shortest available time.” He may not be solely to blame for our problems.
According to Olowoniyi, maintenance on a crucial gas pipeline that provides fuel to multiple power plants is mostly to blame for the current power outages.
He claims that gas is a major component of Nigeria’s electricity production.
He stated, “One of Nigeria’s major gas pipelines was undergoing maintenance, and that process is gradually being completed.”
He stated that power plants would be able to return to their prior production levels if gas pressure was fully restored.
“We’re confident that full gas pressure will return to the gas pipelines within the next two weeks, and the power plants will be able to get enough gas to at least return to their level of generation that they had in the last two to three months,” he stated.
The official from the power ministry expressed hope that there were already indications of progress.
“As the pressure on the pipeline gradually begins to build up, we would have already started to see some improvement from yesterday, and we will see continuous improvement over the next couple of weeks,” he stated.
Adelabu told Nigerians earlier on Tuesday in Abuja that the outages were brought on by circumstances outside the government’s direct control, but he promised that the power supply would soon improve.
“I can tell you, we should start seeing improvements in supply in two weeks with the committee we have set up, commitments from gas suppliers, and the timeline for repair of the gas pipelines,” the minister stated.
He described the current state of affairs as a temporary disruption and reaffirmed the Federal Government’s intention to raise electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026.
