The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government, over repeated national grid failures.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Obi recalled President Tinubu’s campaign promise on electricity, writing:
“Lest we forget, If I Don’t Give You Constant Electricity in The Next 4 Years, Don’t Vote For Me For Second Term.
“The impact is too glaring for Nigerians to forget the promise of Mr. President while campaigning on 22nd December 2022 that, ‘If I Don’t Give You Constant Electricity in The Next 4 Years, Don’t Vote For Me For Second Term.’
“For a nation already said to have more people living without electricity than anywhere else in the world, there could not be any firmer or more comforting political promise than this.
“Yet, the 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.
“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.
“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 would unlock industrial growth and create millions of jobs.
“But rather than focusing on this, which would 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.
“Mr. President, it is time to prioritise generating and distributing more electricity to power businesses, especially SMEs, which will create jobs and grow the economy,” obi concluded.
Earlier today Politics Nigeria reported that the Nigerian national grid collapsed for the fifth time this year.