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Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) have apologised to Nigerians over weeks of poor power supply, acknowledging the hardship caused by prolonged blackouts across the country.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan, tendered the apology on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television.
“I’d like to first of all start by apologising to Nigerians. Apology is needed; it is essential because Nigerians have been taken through this problem over the past few weeks,” he said.
Oduntan also criticised what he described as a return to a blame game among operators in the electricity sector. He recalled that similar disagreements between stakeholders affected the industry between 2016 and 2019. At the time, distribution companies blamed transmission operators, while generation companies blamed gas suppliers and payment issues.
“Our major problem is that we have started that very wrong route that we went through between 2016 and 2019. What is that? Blame game.
“Part of what happened at that time is that people will blame the DisCos, DisCos will blame TCN, TCN will blame GenCos, GenCos will blame the gas suppliers, and gas suppliers will blame payment issues. We have returned to that, and I think there is a need to arrest that,” he said.
Oduntan also questioned conflicting explanations from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) over the causes of the power shortages.
He said NISO had linked the supply problems partly to low water levels and inadequate gas supply. However, NNPC later issued a statement saying gas was available.
Oduntan questioned the NNPC’s explanation, saying the company should clarify whether outstanding payments were affecting gas supply to power generation companies.
“From the NNPC statement, it is very clear that they came to tell us half-truths. What I would have expected NNPC to do is to go ahead and talk to us whether there are payment issues. We need to know whether gas was paid for and delivered, who did, who didn’t,” he said.
He urged the Minister of Power to bring the relevant stakeholders together and establish the actual causes of the shortages.
“This back and forth blame game between gas suppliers, NNPC and, of course, TCN or NISO, I think the Minister of Power needs to take charge. There is a need for this leadership because, at the end of the day, they need to call them together,” he said.
The apology comes following growing frustration over poor electricity supply, which has left households and businesses struggling with prolonged outages in recent weeks.
The situation has also raised questions about the effectiveness of the Band A, B and C electricity tariff system, which links customer payments to expected hours of supply.
Under the arrangement, Band A customers are entitled to at least 20 hours of electricity daily. However, many have continued to complain about inadequate supply. The outages have become harder for residents to endure amid intense heat and rising costs of alternative power sources.
The situation has also attracted criticism from public figures. Veteran actress Kate Henshaw questioned why Nigerians still struggle to enjoy reliable electricity, saying households have effectively become “mini-factories” because they must generate their own power.
Content creator Cute Abiola also appealed to President Bola Tinubu in a video, expressing frustration over the heat and the difficulty of accessing alternative power sources.
Meanwhile, rising petrol and diesel prices have made generators more expensive to run. Solar panels, batteries and inverters also remain beyond the reach of many households and small businesses. The crisis has renewed attention to Tinubu’s campaign promise to improve electricity supply and end estimated billing.
During his 2023 presidential campaign, Tinubu told members of the Organised Private Sector in Lagos that Nigerians should hold him accountable if he failed to deliver on the promise.
“Whichever way, by all means necessary, you will have electricity, and you will not pay for estimated bills anymore. A promise made will be a promise kept.
“If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me, unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver,” he said.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has also faced calls to resign over the persistent outages. Some Nigerians and civil society organisations have accused him of incompetence and failing to address the worsening electricity situation.
Their criticism followed the minister’s appeal for calm on Saturday and his promise that power supply would improve within 72 hours.
However, Tegbe said on Monday that electricity had been restored to several areas in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Kwara states, as well as the FCT. He attributed part of the disruption to the vandalism of a critical 330-kilovolt transmission line.
In a social media update, the minister said the affected Benin-Egbin transmission line had been repaired and returned to service. He added that the restoration had increased electricity supply to the Lagos Complex to more than 1,000 megawatts, restoring it to the level recorded before the disruption.
