Federal Government explains why Nigeria has been witnessing power blackout in the past few weeks

The Federal Government on Friday apologised
to Nigerians for the poor power situation the country has been witnessing in the past few weeks.
In a statement signed by the Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the situation was blamed on gas shortage, vandalism and sabotage.
He also said all efforts were being made to rectify the situation and ensure a gradual improvement in the power situation.
The minister said the routine maintenance by
the Nigeria Gas Company had affected the
supply of gas to power stations, forcing down
power supply from an all-time high of 5,074
MW to about 4,000MW.
He added that a combination of unsavoury
incidents further crashed the power supply to
about half that figure.
Mohammed said, “There will be a decent
improvement in the power situation from this
weekend, thanks to on-going remedial efforts
that will double the current power supply to
4,000WM. Getting back to the 5,074MW all-
time high that was reached earlier will take a
few more weeks.
‘’The vandalism of the Forcados export
pipelines forced oil companies to shut down,
making it impossible for them to produce gas.
Then, workers at the Ikeja Discos, who were
protesting the disengagement of some of their
colleagues after they failed the company’s
competency test, apparently colluded with the
National Transmission Station in Osogbo to
shut down transmission.
‘’Finally, the unfortunate strike by the unions
at the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation over the restructuring of the
corporation, shut down the Itarogun Power
Station, the biggest in the country.
“Due to these factors, only 13 of the 24 power
stations in the country are currently
functioning. It is this same kind of unsavoury
situation that has affected fuel supply and
subjected Nigerians to untold hardship.”
The minister condemned the situation in which some Nigerians, under the guise of the various unions in the oil and gas sector, would continuously sabotage the country’s power infrastructure.
He said, ‘’The bitter truth is that for as long as
these groups of Nigerians continue to sabotage
the power infrastructure, Nigerians cannot
enjoy a decent level of power supply.
“We therefore admonish all Nigerians who may
be agitating for their rights in whatever form
to refrain from any action that will further
hurt the same people they claim to be
protecting.”