Former Media Adviser to Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Paul Ibe, has faulted the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, over claims that Nigerians are calling to ask him to “slow down” on electricity supply because their freezers are now “freezing too much,” insisting that official data from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) tells a different story.
In a statement reacting to the Minister’s remarks, Ibe said the claim was disconnected from the reality of millions of Nigerians still grappling with epileptic power supply, high energy costs and rising diesel prices.
“For real?” Ibe asked. “Apparently, the Tinubu government hears voices the rest of Nigeria cannot hear.”
He said the government “hears Nigerians complaining about too much electricity, while official NERC data showed that in April only about 4,286MW was available for dispatch from 13,625MW of installed grid-connected capacity.”
“It hears freezers freezing. Nigerians hear generators roaring. It hears of an electricity revolution. Families see electricity bills consuming their incomes. It hears economic progress. Small businesses see the cost of electricity, petrol and diesel eating away their margins,” he said.
Ibe noted that even as the Minister spoke of frozen food, diesel had recently crossed ₦2,000 per litre in parts of the country, adding that the government should “stop listening to these convenient voices and start listening to the millions of Nigerians struggling with the cost of energy, food, transportation and basic survival.”
“The real story is not that Nigerians’ freezers are freezing. What is freezing is the quality of life of Nigerians,” he said, listing shrinking household incomes, businesses being “frozen out” by energy costs, disappearing jobs and families cutting consumption simply to survive.
“Nigeria does not have an electricity problem because the Minister is supplying too much power. The available official numbers tell a considerably less triumphant story,” Ibe said, urging the government to “leave the freezer jokes alone” and “give Nigerians reliable and affordable electricity.”
WHAT THE MINISTER SAID
Tegbe had made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking in Abuja at the commissioning of a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University, formerly the University of Abuja.
The Minister said he had been receiving feedback from electricity consumers following improvements in supply in parts of the country.
“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. That is what freezer is meant to do. Let it freeze the food that needs to be frozen,” Tegbe said.
He said he had promised during his Senate screening that Nigerians would begin to see noticeable improvements in electricity supply within three to six months.
The Minister, however, acknowledged the scale of the challenges facing the sector, noting that some of the country’s electricity infrastructure was more than 40 years old.
“We’re systematically replacing them, phasing them out and bringing new ones,” he said.
Tegbe also raised concerns about the vandalism of critical electricity infrastructure, disclosing that three major transmission towers in Birnin Kebbi had been brought down by vandals.
He said the affected towers formed part of the infrastructure supplying electricity to Kebbi State and extending to Niger Republic, adding that the vandals had attacked the towers’ foundations before bringing them down and cutting parts of the structures for sale in the scrap market.
THE DATA GAP
Ibe’s rebuttal centres on figures he attributes to NERC showing that only about 4,286MW was available for dispatch in April from an installed grid-connected capacity of 13,625MW, a gap he argues undercuts the Minister’s suggestion that supply has become so abundant that consumers are asking for less of it.
