Peter Obi Reacts as National Grid Collapses Again, "Ordinary Nigerians Live in Darkness"
- Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, stated that the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC), has overseen more national grid failures and power outages than any government in Nigeria’s history
- In a statement on X, Obi mocked Tinubu’s administration for putting ordinary Nigerians in darkness despite the president’s campaign promise to deliver uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians
- The opposition leader charged Tinubu to focus on generating and distributing electricity to facilitate economic growth and create more job opportunities for Nigerians
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering politics, elections, and governance in Nigeria.
FCT, Abuja - Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, has criticised Nigeria's frequent national grid collapses, particularly under President Bola Tinubu's administration.
In a statement he signed and shared on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Wednesday evening, September 10, Obi asserted that "for a nation already stated to have more people living without electricity than anywhere in the world, there could not be any more firm comforting political promise than this."
Source: Facebook
Concerns as national grid collapses
Legit.ng had reported how power supply was disrupted across the country on Wednesday, September 10, following the collapse of the national grid.
The disruption happened around 11am and 12pm, with the megawatts generated dropping significantly.
Some distribution companies announced the disruption of power in their areas.
Reacting to the development, Obi reminded the public that President Bola Tinubu declared in 2022 that if he fails to give Nigerians constant electricity in the next four years, citizens should not vote for him for a second term.
Obi wrote:
"APC and its current government have presided over more national grid failures and power outages than any government in our history. There are now repeated blackouts despite billions in power investments."
He continued:
"Over the years, billions of dollars have been spent on the power sector in Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria has spent more on power generation with little or no increase in supply, than countries like Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Yet, while some of these nations have proudly doubled their electricity generation, and distribution by adding tens of thousands of megawatts to transform their economies and increase their GDP, Nigeria has barely crawled from 4,500MW to 5,000MW.
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"With a GDP of about $200 billion, Nigeria has the capacity to significantly boost its economy if it invests properly in electricity. Generating even a bare minimum of 10,000MW could raise our GDP by about 50%, which will unlock industrial growth, and create millions of jobs. But rather than focusing on this, which will improve our economy, we are focused on coastal roads that will contribute far less to our economic growth, while factories shut down, jobs disappear, businesses collapse, and ordinary Nigerians live in darkness."
The opposition leader, therefore, asked President Tinubu to "prioritise generating and distributing more electricity to power businesses, especially NSME, which will create jobs and grow the economy."
Wednesday’s incident adds to a growing number of national grid failures in the country.
In 2024, the grid experienced a system failure several times, resulting in power outages across the country.
In the wake of the incessant grid collapse, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) promised to work on a buffer system to halt power outages when the system fails, attributing the development to aging infrastructure.
The house of representatives also investigated the frequent system collapse.
Source: Legit.ng
