Former presidential candidate Peter Obi has urged the federal government to find lasting solutions to Nigeria’s persistent power crisis, following yet another collapse of the national grid that plunged the nation into darkness.
Obi voiced his concerns on his X handle, highlighting the ongoing power challenges. The national grid has reportedly collapsed 10 times since January, with three of these outages occurring in October alone.
In a Wednesday statement, Obi drew a comparison between Nigeria’s power supply struggles and South Africa’s recent milestone of seven uninterrupted months of electricity. “Again, yesterday the now regular news came that the National Grid had collapsed once again,” Obi wrote. “Just a few days ago, on the 25th of October, South Africa…with a quarter of our population, celebrated seven months of uninterrupted power supply. South Africa generates and distributes about 40,000 MW of electricity, while Nigeria struggles to generate and distribute just 10% of that.”
Addressing criticisms, Obi added, “Is there any tribe in Nigeria that enjoys uninterrupted power supply like South Africa? I am labelled a tribal bigot. When I ask if any religion enjoys special privileges in this crisis, I am called a religious bigot.
But I will continue to speak the truth about our situation today.” He emphasized that all Nigerians face the same power supply challenges: “The fact remains that we are all suffering equally from this failure.”
Obi further urged Nigerians to move beyond “primordial sentiments” and elect leaders who can bring tangible development. “The solution lies not in tribal or religious affiliations but in visionary leadership and a shared commitment to progress,” he stated. “We must…elect leaders who are competent, capable, and have the vision to transform our nation…by investing our meagre resources in critical areas of development like health and education, lifting our people out of poverty, and ensuring increased electricity production and distribution.”
