Peter Obi, politician and 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has strongly criticized the recent collapse of Nigeria’s national power grid, labeling it a “national shame.”
The grid suffered two collapses within 24 hours, with the first occurring on Monday evening around 6:18 pm, plunging large parts of the country into darkness.
A second collapse followed on Tuesday, as electricity distribution companies across the country reported the failure.
In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Obi highlighted the grid failure as a stark example of leadership deficiencies and poor policy implementation.
“For the umpteenth time, the national grid has collapsed, plunging a huge part of the nation into darkness and exposing the fragility of Nigeria’s power infrastructure,” Obi said.
“This recurring disaster is a national shame and a glaring testament to the failure of leadership and policy implementation at the highest levels,” he continued.
He questioned how long Nigerians must continue to endure an inadequate system that fails to meet the basic necessities of a productive society.
Obi emphasized that consistent power supply is crucial for economic growth, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are vital to job creation and national development.
“We all know the immense importance of power supply to the transformation of our economy,” Obi added.
“SMEs, which are the engine of job creation and a major contributor to our GDP, rely on stable power supply,” he emphasized.
Obi further criticized the decline in Nigeria’s economic standing, noting that the country has fallen from being the largest economy in Africa to the fourth largest, largely due to ongoing leadership failures, including persistent issues in the power sector.
He compared Nigeria’s power generation to that of other African nations, pointing out that South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria all with significantly smaller populations, generate and distribute much more electricity than Nigeria.
“South Africa, with a GDP of about $400 billion and 30% of our population, generates over 40,000 megawatts of electricity.
Egypt, with half our population and a GDP of $350 billion, generates the same.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, with a population greater than all three countries combined, generates less than 10,000 megawatts,” Obi explained.
He concluded by calling for an urgent and comprehensive reform of the power sector, stating that without it, Nigeria’s growth and potential will continue to be hindered by governance deficits.
