Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has revealed that some electricity consumers have jokingly appealed to him to “slow down” the recent improvement in power supply, saying their freezers were now freezing after previously enduring prolonged blackouts.

Tegbe made the remark on Wednesday while speaking at the commissioning of a 3-megawatt solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University in Abuja, where he highlighted recent efforts by the Federal Government to improve electricity availability across the country.

According to the minister, some communities that previously went for months without electricity are now recording significantly longer periods of supply, with some areas receiving up to 18 hours of power in a day.

“Places that didn’t have light at all for three months are now having 18 hours of light. Some areas called me to say, look, I should slow down, that everything in their freezer is freezing,” Tegbe said.

He responded humorously that freezing food was, after all, exactly what freezers were designed to do.

“That is what a freezer is meant to do. Let it freeze the food that needs to be frozen,” he added.

The minister recalled that during his Senate screening, he had assured Nigerians that noticeable improvements in electricity supply would begin to emerge within three to six months.

While pointing to the progress recorded so far, Tegbe acknowledged that the country's power sector continues to face major infrastructure challenges, particularly the age and condition of electricity equipment across the country.

He said some of the infrastructure currently being used to generate, transmit and distribute electricity is more than four decades old and requires systematic replacement.

“Some of the infrastructure we have in the electricity and power sector are more than 40 years old. We’re systematically replacing them, phasing them out and bringing new ones,” he said.

Beyond ageing infrastructure, Tegbe identified vandalism as another major threat to efforts to stabilise electricity supply.

He disclosed that three major transmission towers in Birnin Kebbi had recently been brought down by vandals, affecting infrastructure responsible for supplying electricity to Kebbi State and extending into Niger Republic.

According to him, the attackers deliberately weakened the foundations of the towers before bringing them down and cutting portions of the structures into pieces for sale in the scrap market.

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“You will not believe how many towers get pulled down by vandals,” the minister said, stressing the scale of the problem confronting the country's electricity infrastructure.

In response, the Federal Government has established a joint working committee involving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to strengthen the protection of critical electricity assets.

Tegbe said the government was also working towards ensuring that the destruction and theft of electricity infrastructure were treated as serious criminal offences capable of attracting appropriate sanctions.

The minister's comments came against the backdrop of the commissioning of the solar hybrid project at Yakubu Gowon University, which is designed to provide a more reliable electricity supply to critical facilities within the institution.

The project combines a 3.3-megawatt solar array with a 3-megawatt AC output capacity and battery storage, providing an alternative power source for key university operations.

Tegbe said the facility would supply electricity to lecture halls, laboratories, information and communication technology facilities, administrative buildings, campus lighting and other essential services.

More than 58,726 students are expected to benefit from the project, which includes 6,078 photovoltaic panels and 388 streetlights installed across the university campus.

The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, described the project as an important milestone under the agency's Energising Education Programme, which is aimed at improving electricity supply to tertiary institutions.

The Vice-Chancellor of Yakubu Gowon University, Prof. Hakeem Fawehinmi, also stressed the importance of dependable electricity to the institution, saying reliable power supply was essential for teaching, research, laboratory work and other aspects of academic life.

The commissioning therefore came as part of the broader push to improve electricity access while modernising ageing infrastructure and protecting critical power assets from vandalism.

For consumers who have endured years of unreliable electricity, the minister's “freezer” joke offered a lighter moment against the backdrop of a much bigger challenge: whether the recent improvements can be sustained and extended to more communities across the country.