The Chief Technical Adviser to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Olowoniyi, has said Nigerians should begin to experience gradual improvement in electricity supply as repairs on a major gas pipeline approach completion, with full restoration expected within two weeks.
Olowoniyi made this known on Thursday during an appearance on Arise TV, coming days after the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, apologised to Nigerians over the persistent power outages that have affected homes, businesses, and institutions nationwide.
Reacting to the apology, Olowoniyi described it as a demonstration of leadership rather than an admission of fault.
“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.
Not necessarily directly his fault for the challenges that we have, but 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 said.
He explained that the current power challenges were mainly caused by maintenance work on a critical gas pipeline supplying fuel to power plants, noting that about 75 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity generation depends on gas.
“One of the major gas pipelines in Nigeria was undergoing maintenance, and gradually that process is being completed. We’re sure that within the next two weeks, full gas pressure will be back on the gas pipelines, and the power plants will be able to get enough gas at least to go back to their level of generation that they had in the last two to three months,” he said.
Olowoniyi added that the recovery process has already begun, with improvements expected to continue steadily in the coming days.
“I would already say that from yesterday, we would have gradually started to see some improvement as the pressure on the pipeline gradually starts to build up, and we will see continuous improvement over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
The development follows the minister’s earlier remarks in Abuja, where he assured Nigerians that the outages were due to factors beyond immediate control but promised noticeable improvement within two weeks.
“I can tell you… two weeks from now, we should start seeing improvements in supply. Two weeks,” Adelabu had said.
He also reaffirmed the Federal Government’s plan to increase electricity generation to 6,000 megawatts before the end of 2026, describing the current situation as temporary.
Nigeria’s power sector continues to face longstanding challenges, including limited gas supply, ageing infrastructure, transmission constraints, and financial issues across the system.
