The ongoing Lagos power outage pushed residents of Lewis, Okesuna, Beecroft, Simpson and Sandgrouse streets on Lagos Island to protest on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Frustrated by days of darkness and unbearable heat, they chanted, “E fun wa ina o, orun pa wa”, meaning “Give us light, the heat is killing us.”

Sadly, they’re not the only ones suffering power outages. Across Lagos, residents in places like Yaba, Ikeja, Lekki, Isolo, Ikotun and Surulere are also reporting prolonged blackouts lasting days, leaving many homes and small businesses stranded.

Heat plus darkness = ?

If the darkness wasn’t already bad enough, the current  El Niño wave is about to make it worse. i Lagos’ Environment Commissioner, Tokunbo Wahab, said a strengthening El Niño and the start of the dry season could bring unusual heat, dust and poor air quality.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) says dehydration and heat exhaustion are most likely to occur in dense, low-income communities with limited access to cooling. This means the people without a generator are the most exposed.

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Who’s saying what?

• Ikeja Electric: blames a shortfall in power allocated to it from the national grid.
• Eko Disco: said in August that its allocation dropped from 486MW to 347MW, but the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disagreed with that explanation.
• Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu: In August, he questioned what state governments had achieved in the 18 months following the unbundling of the power sector and said that he aims to deliver 3,000MW of electricity to Lagos by March 2027.

As of the time of this report, neither the state government nor the electricity company had commented on the Lagos Island protest.

The maths is not mathing

Lagos needs an estimated 12,000MW but received an average grid allocation of only 930MW as of the third quarter of 2025, leaving a gap of over 11,000MW. That’s roughly 8% of demand.

Lines fail as well. Ikeja Electric has cited a forced outage of the Osogbo–Ikeja West 330kV line, which limits how much generation can reach Lagos. So much is going on, and Ikeja Electric has been endlessly apologising nine times in just seven days, 

But this has not made things any better for residents. How can it?

 Then tweets follow

After the tweets…

With the February 2027 governorship election around the corner, political promises are heating up faster than the weather. As candidates take the stage, voters in Lagos have to remember that electricity must be a top priority for whichever candidate they plan to vote for.