Let The Freezers Freeze, Not Nigerians

By Paul Ibe

There is something increasingly troubling about the gulf between the Nigeria that officials of the Bola Tinubu administration describe and the Nigeria in which ordinary citizens actually live.

The latest example comes from the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, who says some Nigerians have been calling him to ask that he should “slow down” improvements in electricity supply because everything in their freezers is freezing.

According to the Minister, some communities that previously had no electricity for months are now enjoying as much as 18 hours of supply daily.

Wonderful.

But one is entitled to ask: Who exactly are these Nigerians asking the Minister to slow down? Where do they live? And are they representative of the country whose power sector the government is supposed to manage?

Perhaps the larger problem with the Tinubu administration is that it appears to hear voices that millions of struggling Nigerians cannot hear.

It hears people complaining about too much electricity while households complain about electricity bills they can barely afford.

It hears freezers freezing while businesses hear generators roaring.

It hears economic progress while families watch their purchasing power collapse.

It hears prosperity while traders, artisans and small businesses struggle with the cost of electricity, petrol, diesel, transportation and logistics.

The numbers themselves should encourage considerably more modesty.

According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s April 2026 Operational Performance Factsheet, Nigeria had 13,625MW of installed grid-connected generation capacity, but only an average of 4,286MW was available for dispatch — a plant availability factor of just 31 per cent.

That is hardly the picture of a country overwhelmed by an embarrassment of electricity.

Nobody disputes that some communities may have experienced improvements in supply. Any improvement should be welcomed. But anecdotes about freezing freezers cannot substitute for the reality confronting an economy of more than 200 million people.

For households and businesses, the electricity question is no longer merely whether power is available. It is increasingly whether they can afford it.

The Tinubu administration’s energy reforms have transferred enormous costs to citizens and businesses. Electricity tariffs have risen sharply for some categories of consumers, while the high cost of petrol and diesel has made self-generation painfully expensive.

For a barber, welder, tailor, restaurant owner, cold-room operator, supermarket or neighbourhood provision store, energy is not an abstract economic statistic. It is part of the cost of every haircut, every weld, every meal, every sachet of water and virtually every product sold.

When energy costs rise, businesses either increase prices, reduce production, cut workers or shut down altogether.

That is how an energy crisis becomes a jobs crisis. And that is how a jobs crisis becomes a household crisis.

This is why the Minister’s freezer anecdote sounds particularly detached from the circumstances of many Nigerians.

The real question is not whether somebody’s freezer somewhere in Nigeria is freezing.

What is freezing is the quality of life of millions of Nigerians.

Disposable income is being frozen by the cost of living. Small businesses are being frozen out by operating costs. Employment opportunities are being frozen as struggling businesses cut costs. Family budgets are being frozen by the combined burden of food, transportation, electricity and fuel.

Yet from the corridors of power comes a very different soundtrack.

This has become an unfortunate feature of the Tinubu administration: statistics and anecdotes are repeatedly presented as evidence of progress while Nigerians are asked to disregard the evidence of their own pockets.

Government officials tell Nigerians inflation is easing. The citizen goes to the market and discovers that easing inflation does not mean falling prices.

Officials celebrate economic reforms. Families calculate how many meals they can afford.

Officials speak of improved electricity. Small businesses calculate whether they can afford either the grid or the generator.

And now we are told Nigerians are asking the Minister of Power to slow down because their freezers are freezing.

The administration needs to stop listening only to the voices that tell it what it wants to hear.

It should listen to the market woman calculating transport costs before determining the price of her tomatoes.

It should listen to the barber calculating electricity and generator expenses before charging for a haircut.

It should listen to manufacturers whose energy costs feed directly into the prices consumers eventually pay.

It should listen to families deciding which necessities they must sacrifice to pay electricity bills.

Nigeria needs substantially more reliable electricity. Nobody wants the Minister to “slow down.”

Indeed, Nigerians would be delighted if the government could deliver reliable, affordable electricity around the clock.

Let every freezer in Nigeria freeze. Let factories run uninterrupted. Let welders abandon generators. Let small businesses stop spending fortunes on alternative power. Let families enjoy electricity without being terrified by the bill that follows.

But until that Nigeria arrives, government officials should resist turning isolated anecdotes into declarations of national triumph.

The Tinubu administration should stop celebrating the sound of imaginary applause and start listening to the very real cries coming from Nigerian homes, markets and businesses.

Minister Tegbe, don’t slow down.

Produce more electricity. Make it reliable. Make it affordable. Let the freezers freeze. Just stop freezing the lives of Nigerians.

Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, writes from Abuja.