Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, stirred controversy in a ministerial address at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, where he apologised for the country’s incessant power outages, promising that there would be changes within the next two weeks.
According to the Minister, the outages are due to circumstances beyond the Government’s control. However, he reassured Nigerians that immediate measures had been taken to reverse the situation. These include setting up committees and the supposed compliance with repairs of the nation’s gas pipelines by entities in the domestic gas supply chain. Prior reports identify Seplat Energy’s facilities as one of those requiring these repairs.
After pleading his case, the Minister included a two-week delivery timeline, and also claimed that “6,000MW will be achieved before the end of this year, and Nigerians will be better for it.”
In the aftermath of the press conference, criticisms have been raised from various quarters, both due to Adelabu’s track record of undelivered promises and a failure to address the core issues contributing to the blackouts and power grid collapses. The Oyo State indigene, who is set to contest in the forthcoming Governorship elections on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, had previously promised the same 6,000MW target in May 2024. At the time, he claimed that this would be achieved at the close of the year.
However, as of December 20, 2024, total power generation stood at 4,669.23MW, a far cry from the then all-time high of 5,801.6MW recorded in March 2021. Under Adelabu’s leadership, the Transmission Company of Nigeria has not attained this figure, peaking at 5,801.84MW in December 2025. As of February 2026, average available capacity was at a 21-month low of 4,384MW, down from 4,892MW in February 2025 and 5,285MW in February 2024.
In October 2025, the Minister announced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of a ₦4 trillion bond to clear debts owed to gas suppliers and electricity generation companies (GenCos), aiming to clear longstanding liabilities. The first phase of the bond was settled in December 2025, a Series 1 issuance of ₦590 billion. While this was applauded by himself and other Government stakeholders, external players highlighted a shortfall in meeting the actual debt burden.
As of August 2025, legacy debt stood at ₦2 trillion, combined with ₦2 trillion in accumulated obligations and over ₦1.2 trillion GenCo debts in H1 2025 alone, totaling more than the allocated bond. This is even as the country’s debt profile continues to soar beyond revenue generation, signalling worrying outcomes for the power sector, in particular.
Additionally, Adelabu’s implied sudden restoration of power ignores the full spectrum of disruptions. Gas-fired plants generate an overwhelming 75% majority of Nigeria’s electricity. According to the Association of Power Generation Companies Chair, Dr. Joy Ogaji, this bad debt situation is more than has been portrayed by the Federal Government. “This debt has been accumulating since 2015. By the end of this month, it will hit 7 trillion naira,” she explained in a recent press appearance, adding that only about ₦300 billion of ₦6.8 trillion is being scheduled to be paid.
What this suggests is a longer-standing issue, traceable to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which had three separate Power Ministers: Babatunde Raji Fashola in the first tenure and Saleh Mamman (2019-2021) and Abubakar Aliyu, respectively.
Under Fashola, the Federal Government struck a $2.3 billion Presidential Power Initiative with Siemens and the German government. This was to enable the corporation to ‘transform Nigeria’s transmission and distribution sector.’ Adelabu’s office claims that “the project stalled with no significant improvements” despite an abundance of opposing evidence to that effect.
For context, funds were disbursed, inter-governmental engagement took place, and transformers were delivered and installed across the country up until 2023, per certain sources. The original three-phase plan of the Presidential Power Initiative (7,000MW by 2021, 11,000MW by 2023, and 25,000MW by 2025) has not been implemented as scheduled, but has progressed to a substantial level. 700MW was added as part of Phase Zero. In October 2025, during the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s “Uninterrupted Power: The Industrial Imperative” program, Adelabu claimed that additional plans were ongoing to unlock about 345MW, alongside various other financial projections for support from the World Bank and the NSIA RIPLE, among others. Sadly, evidence of these deals are lacking for the average Nigerian to whom he’s previously made promises; especially with incidents like the over 100-day University College Hospital Ibadan blackout.
Considering the Minister’s imminent resignation, and the promises left unfulfilled in his wake, it is simply rational that citizens offer harsh criticism and negative feedback. Nigeria’s power sector is stuck in a loop of unreliable supply, reducing revenues, and a large liquidity gap, that ultimately leads to increased dependence on self-generation. Already, social media users have called out a discourse that leans towards promotion of these alternatives, focusing instead on holding the Power Ministry accountable. But even this requires long-term solutions that the current administration appears ill-equipped to handle.
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