The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu in no unclear words has declared that Nigerians should expect more collapse of the National Grid until the repair on Ugwachi-Bauchi-Makurdi line is completed.
This completion is however dependent on the security situation in the north which is yet to be addressed.
The Minister made these submissions on Monday while defending his ministry’s 2025 budget figures before the Senate Committee on Power.
According to him, the inability to fix the damaged line as a result of insecurity is putting undue pressure on existing infrastructure and has made the grid fragile.
Adelabu also pointed out that the grid is old and requires a total overhaul to make it efficient.
He however denied reports that the National Grid collapsed 12 times in 2024, saying it experienced only 8, out of which 5 were full and 3 partial collapses.
During the interaction, Adelabu couldn’t give any assurances that the grid would not suffer future collapses, but promised that the Power Ministry would swiftly restore it when any incident occurs.
Reports had shown that the National Grid had collapsed on Friday, 10th of January 2025. But the Ministry of Power had tagged it as fake news.
