Nigerians are telling the power minister to slow down. Joseph Tegbe, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, said residents who had gone months without electricity are now calling him to complain that their freezers are working too well.
“Places that didn’t have light at all for three months are now having 18 hours light. Some areas called me to say, look, I should slow down, that everything in their freezer is freezing,” Tegbe said.
The minister made the remark at the commissioning of a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University in Abuja. He said the comments were jokes from residents adjusting to a longer supply after long stretches without reliable power.
Tegbe said some communities that previously endured prolonged outages have started receiving longer hours of electricity. He said the improvement is tied to ongoing government efforts to strengthen the sector. Households and businesses need consistent supply to make proper use of electrical appliances, he added.
The minister also recalled a promise he made during his Senate screening, when he said Nigerians would notice improvements in electricity supply within three to six months.
The comments come as the Federal Government pushes to increase power generation, upgrade transmission infrastructure and expand access across the country.
Nigeria’s electricity sector has struggled for years with inadequate generation capacity, transmission limits, distribution problems and infrastructure gaps. Those failures have produced the frequent outages that millions of consumers live with. For many, the new 18-hour supply is a reversal of a long and familiar pattern, and the minister’s anecdote captures how unfamiliar that change feels.
Tegbe did not give a timeline for when the longer supply would reach other areas, nor did he specify which regions are currently seeing the 18-hour service. He described the calls from residents as a sign of the adjustment underway, with people suddenly able to keep food frozen and run appliances they had all but abandoned.
The solar project at Yakubu Gowon University is part of a broader push to bring off-grid power to institutions and communities. The 3-megawatt installation adds to a mix of grid and renewable sources the government is leaning on to close the supply gap.
Tegbe’s comments were light in tone but pointed at a serious shift. Nigerians who spent months in the dark are now complaining about the opposite problem. The minister took the calls as a measure of progress, even if the requests were playful. He said the goal of the ongoing interventions is improved access, and that consistent supply is what households and businesses need to get real use out of their electrical appliances.
The power sector’s problems run deep. Generation capacity has lagged demand for years. Transmission lines are weak and prone to collapse. Distribution companies struggle to deliver what power does reach them. The result has been a cycle of blackouts that has shaped daily life and business costs across the country.
The government’s current efforts target those layers at once, from new generation projects to grid repairs to smaller installations like the one at the Abuja university. Whether the 18-hour supply holds and spreads will depend on how those pieces hold together.
For now, the minister’s story is the clearest sign yet that some Nigerians are feeling a change. Freezers that sat warm for months are freezing again. And the people who own them are calling the minister to tell him to ease off.
According to Pulse.ng.
