Adebayo Olowoniyi, the Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister of Power, has stated that as maintenance work on a major gas pipeline nears completion, Nigerians should start to observe a steady improvement in the supply of energy.
In 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 by Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, for the ongoing power outages that have impacted the nation’s homes, businesses, and industries.
Olowoniyi defended the minister’s behavior, arguing that the apology showed leadership rather than an admission of personal accountability.
“I think, first of all, I’d like to start with the Honourable Minister’s apology, which we believe is all about taking leadership in the sector,” he stated.
“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 directly to blame for the difficulties we face.
Olowoniyi clarified that maintenance on a vital gas pipeline that provides fuel to multiple power plants was a major contributing factor in the recent power outages.
He claims that gas is a major source of electricity in Nigeria.
“Maintenance was being done on one of Nigeria’s major gas pipelines, and that process is gradually being completed,” he stated.
He continued by saying that power plants would be able to return to their prior production levels if gas pressure was completely 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 obtain 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 expressed hope that improvements were already starting to show.
“I would already say that starting yesterday, we would have started to see some improvement as the pipeline’s pressure gradually starts to build up, 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 of the government’s direct control, but he promised that the power supply would soon improve.
“I can tell you that in two weeks, we should start seeing improvements in supply with the committee we have set up, commitments from gas suppliers, and the timeline for repair of the gas pipelines,” the minister stated.
Additionally, he reaffirmed the Federal Government’s goal of raising electricity production to 6,000 megawatts by the end of 2026, characterizing the current state of affairs as a brief disturbance.
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