Electricity supply in Arepo and environs is increasingly becoming epileptic, writes AKINLOLU AKINPELUMI
For millions of Nigerians, electricity is not something they simply rely on. It is something they keep waiting for. The light comes. It goes. Residents ask when it will return. Engineers are called. A fault is identified. Repairs are made. Power returns—only for the cycle to begin again hours or days later.
This has become familiar in Arepo, a fast-growing community along the Lagos–Ogun axis. In recent months, residents have experienced repeated outages involving transformers, feeders, transmission supply and other parts of the electricity network. The community has repeatedly engaged Ikeja Electric, sought technical explanations and followed efforts to restore supply.
It would be easy to frame this as frustrated residents versus Ikeja Electric. But the bigger question is: What happens when a community grows faster than the infrastructure serving it?
Arepo’s experience suggests that Nigeria’s electricity crisis is not simply about generating more power. It is also about whether transmission and distribution infrastructure can reliably deliver that power to consumers.
Arepo has expanded rapidly, with new estates, homes, businesses and rising electricity demand. Every additional household, air conditioner, borehole, refrigerator and business adds pressure to the network.
The repeated failures involving Balogun Distribution Transformer 2 illustrate the problem. Repairing a failed transformer is necessary, but repeated failure should trigger a deeper assessment of its capacity, loading, condition and the wider network.
Otherwise, the cycle becomes predictable: failure, emergency repair, restoration, renewed stress and failure again.
That is not infrastructure renewal. It is infrastructure survival. Not every outage originates in Arepo. Some disruptions have involved upstream transmission supply. Electricity passes through a chain—generation, transmission, substations, feeders, transformers and low-voltage networks. A failure anywhere along that chain can leave consumers in darkness.
Responsibility therefore cannot rest with one player alone. Generation, transmission, distribution, regulators and consumers all have roles to play.
The Band B question also deserves attention. If customers are classified according to expected hours of supply, there must be a credible relationship between the service they pay for and what the network can deliver. But moving customers to a lower band should never become a substitute for fixing failing infrastructure.
The cost of unreliable electricity goes far beyond lost hours. Businesses lose productivity and goods. Families spend more on petrol, diesel, inverters and batteries. Water supply and internet services can be disrupted. Nigerians effectively pay twice—once for grid electricity and again for backup power.
Arepo’s organised engagement with Ikeja Electric offers one positive lesson. Communities can document recurring faults, improve communication and demand accountability. But engagement must produce information: What failed? Where? What is being repaired? What remains outstanding? And what is being done to prevent recurrence?
Nigeria must move beyond endlessly repairing infrastructure after it fails. Arepo needs a proper technical assessment covering transformer capacity, feeder loading, peak demand, fault history, upstream constraints and future growth. That should form the basis of an infrastructure master plan.
Arepo is ultimately a Nigerian story. The country does not only have a generation problem. It has a power infrastructure reliability problem.
The goal should not simply be to restore the light.
The goal should be to build a system strong enough to keep it on.
Akinpelumi is
Secretary, Arepo CDC Electricity Committee