The power outage in Northern Nigeria has caused many to call for the removal of Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
The blackout, which has entered its 11th day, has brought harm to many businesses and disrupted daily life in the region.
Kunle Olubiyo, President of the Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, described the situation as a “national embarrassment” that requires immediate attention.
“The president should not treat this with levity. Over 10 days without power supply in the Northern region constitutes a declaration of a state of emergency in the sector,” Olubiyo said.
Eze Onyekpere, Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, echoed Olubiyo’s sentiments, attributing the prolonged outage to incompetence on the part of security agencies and Adelabu. “It is not surprising; there is a general security failure in Nigeria. The vandalization of the transmission line did not just happen overnight but was planned by terrorists.”
Onyekpere emphasized the need for quick action, stating, “The expectation is that the government ought to be up to speed in tackling insecurity. There would be a quick response strategy on the part of the government to respond to the situation because an outage should not be allowed to happen above 10 days.”
Adelabu has assured that power would be restored within five days.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has consistently promised temporary restoration through the Ugwuaji APIR 330kV Line, but results are yet to be seen.
Tunji Bolaji, spokesperson for Adelabu, maintained that the federal government is working tirelessly to restore power. “We are working day and night to ensure that power is restored to the Northern region. TCN engineers are on top of the situation.”
The blackout has worseded the struggles of residents already dealing with high fuel prices and inflation, which reached 32.70% in September.
In the meantime, Olubiyo advocates for decentralizing the national grid into ten industrial hubs to ensure efficiency. “The problem of the industry is purely corruption and institutional inefficiency. We are saying that this should not continue. Whoever is at the helm of affairs, Mr. President should ask them to step aside for proper investigation.”
