Nigeria’s state power grid collapsed on Sunday for at least the sixth time this year affecting several states and major cities nationwide, Nigeria’s Premium Times online newspaper reported on Monday.
The blackout began just before 7:00 p.m. on June 12 and caused power outages across the states of Kaduna, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. Nigeria’s two largest cities, Lagos and Abuja (the national capital), additionally suffered electricity blackouts during the episode. A “system collapse of the national grid” caused the widespread blackouts, according to multiple notices issued by state power companies on Sunday evening.
“It is the sixth reported collapse in 2022, although it is believed the figure could be higher,” the Premium Times noted on Monday.
Nigeria’s federal government has reportedly blamed “poor management and low gas supply as the major causes of the repeated breakdown[s],” according to the newspaper.
“Nigeria’s power grid collapsed twice in March and twice again in April this year, making the power generation on the system to fluctuate due to various concerns such as gas constraint, water management challenges, gas pipeline vandalism, among others [sic],” Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reported on June 13.
Nigeria’s recent power grid failures have been linked to a shortage of oil and gas. Nigeria’s fuel deficit indicates that Abuja has severely mismanaged its domestic crude oil supply, as the country is home to Africa’s second-largest oil reserves, after Libya. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Nigeria is a member, ranked Nigeria as Africa’s number one crude oil producer in November 2021.
Nigeria’s state power grid is infamous for its sporadic failures within the country, according to Nigeria’s TheCable news website.
Detailing previous electricity outages suffered by Nigerians, TheCable recalled on February 14:
Nigeria’s national grid is known for experiencing disruptions. It collapsed in February, May, July, and August 2021.
TheCable had reported that the grid experienced 206 collapses between 2010 and 2019.
A breakdown of the data showed that Nigeria witnessed 146 total collapses of the national grid and 73 partial collapses between the period.
Nigeria’s latest energy crisis has compounded the West African nation’s general insecurity. Nigeria has long suffered from jihadist violence linked to Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group founded in the country’s northeast in 2009. Boko Haram’s attacks, and those by other terrorists likely linked to the organization, have ramped up in recent months and weeks across Nigeria. Most recently, armed gunmen reportedly linked to Boko Haram under its most recent moniker — the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) — massacred and killed at least 40 Christians worshipping during a Sunday morning mass at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, on June 5.
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