Buhari takes responsibility over fuel scarcity, poor electricity supply, apologises to Nigerians

President Muhammadu Buhari has taken responsibility over the fuel scarcity and poor electricity supply in the country.

President Buhari in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, “expressed sincere regrets for the inconvenience caused to citizens of the country”.

The president assured Nigerians that relief was on the way, saying that his government was working on reducing the hardship experienced across the country.

“The government is working round the clock to attend to this issue. An action plan agreed upon earlier this month is being implemented to address the scarcity. Working together with the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), this plan is now bearing fruit. Sufficient fuel supply has returned to a handful of states, with the queues at stations falling. In the coming days, we expect this to be the case across the rest of the country.

“Looking to the longer term, funds are being targeted toward keeping fuel availability affordable for the country. The international energy markets have surged drastically in recent months, the government will however ensure that   consumers are protected against these price spikes,” he said.

The president also instructed security agencies to take strong actions against people “not behaving properly at the depots and among owners of petrol stations”.

According to Buhari, “the blackouts seen in the national grid are also being addressed. A dip in hydroelectric generation due to seasonal pressures has coincided with technical and supply problems at thermal stations. On this, the government is also working tirelessly to resolve the issues at the latter to guarantee sufficient power flows into the national grid.”

He said low gas power generation was as a result of sabotage of gas pipelines leading to the shutdown of power plants coupled with ongoing routine maintenance on other gas power plants.

According to him players in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and the  NNPC agreed to recover over 1000MW, actions were agreed upon .

The actions targeted the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants, (Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and power plants run under NNPC Joint Ventures, Agip and Shell (NAOC and SPDC) and progress on the key actions have already ensured the restoration to the grid of 375MW after the pipeline from “Okpai 1” was repaired.

He added that ramping up the underutilised capacity of the NDPHC capacity, a USD 50 Million Gas Supply agreement was also being finalized to secure the sustainability of up to 800MW of underutilized NIPP assets.