Adebayo Olowoniyi, the Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister of Power, has stated that as repair work on a significant gas pipeline nears 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 a complete restoration of the gas supply to power plants is anticipated within the next two weeks.
His comments follow a public apology from Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, about the ongoing power outages that have impacted households, companies, and industries nationwide.
Olowoniyi defended the minister’s actions, arguing that the apology showed leadership rather than an acknowledgement of personal accountability.
He stated, “I think I’d like to start with the Honourable Minister’s apology, 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.”
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 plays a major role in Nigeria’s electricity production.
He stated, “One of Nigeria’s main gas pipelines was undergoing maintenance, and that process is gradually being completed.”
He continued by saying 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 at least to return to their level of generation that they had in the last two to three months,” he stated.
The official from the power ministry was hopeful that improvements had already started to show.
As the pressure on the pipeline gradually begins to build up, I would already say that we would have started to see some improvement starting yesterday, and we will continue to see improvement over the coming few weeks,” he stated.
Adelabu informed Nigerians earlier on Tuesday in Abuja that the outages were brought on by circumstances outside of the government’s direct control, but he promised that the power supply would soon improve.
“I can tell you that 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 restated the Federal Government’s intention to raise electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts by the end of 2026.
