The Labour Party’s Peter Obi has strongly criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration over its handling of the national electricity crisis, pointing to the President’s own campaign promise as a measure of his failure.
Obi recalled that while campaigning on December 22nd, 2022, then-candidate Tinubu told Nigerians: “If I Don’t Give You Constant Electricity in The Next 4 Years, Don’t Vote For Me For Second Term”. Obi stated that for a nation with millions without power, this was a firm and comforting promise.
However, he stated that the present government has instead “presided over more national grid failures and power outages than any government in our history.” He noted that Nigerians now endure repeated blackouts “despite billions in power investments.”
Highlighting the economic cost, Obi compared Nigeria’s progress to other nations. “Over the years, billions of dollars have been spent on the power sector in Nigeria,” he said, pointing out that countries like Vietnam, Egypt, and Indonesia have dramatically increased their electricity generation while Nigeria has “barely crawled from 4,500MW to 5,000MW.”
He argued that generating a minimum of 10,000MW could raise Nigeria’s GDP by 50%, unlocking industrial growth and creating millions of jobs. Instead, Obi claimed, the government is focused on projects like coastal highways that “will contribute far less to our economic growth, while factories shut down, jobs disappear, businesses collapse, and ordinary Nigerians live in darkness.”
Calling for a shift in priorities, Obi urged the President to focus on “generating and distributing more electricity to power businesses, especially MSMEs, which will create jobs and grow the economy.”
Spear News reports that Obi’s statement came on Wednesday after the country’s
national grid collapsed again. Power generation plummeted from over 2,900 megawatts to just 1.5 megawatts around midday.
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) confirmed the system failure occurred at 11:23 a.m., causing widespread blackouts across its network.
The company stated it is working with stakeholders to restore electricity once grid stability is achieved. This incident is the latest in a series of recurring national grid failures disrupting power supply nationwide.
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