The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has mocked President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) following yet another collapse of the national electricity grid, which plunged the country into widespread blackout.

Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, recalled Tinubu’s campaign promise that Nigerians should not re-elect him if he failed to provide constant electricity within four years.

In a statement titled “If I don’t give you constant electricity in the next 4 years, don’t vote for me for second term,” Obi said:

“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.’”

He noted that the APC-led government has presided over more national grid failures than any administration in Nigeria’s history, despite billions of dollars invested in the power sector.

Comparing Nigeria’s performance with other developing countries, Obi said: “Nigeria has spent more on power generation, with little or no increase in supply, than countries like Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. While they have doubled their electricity generation by adding tens of thousands of megawatts, Nigeria has barely crawled from 4,500MW to 5,000MW.”

Obi stressed that boosting electricity supply to even a minimum of 10,000MW could raise Nigeria’s GDP by about 50 percent, unlock industrial growth, create millions of jobs, and reduce the hardship faced by citizens.

He criticized the Tinubu administration for prioritizing projects like coastal roads over investments in power, saying: “Factories are shutting down, jobs are disappearing, businesses are collapsing, and ordinary Nigerians live in darkness.”

Calling on the president to focus on generating and distributing more electricity to power small and medium-scale enterprises, Obi added: “Mr. President, it is time to prioritise electricity. A New Nigeria is Possible.” (Vanguard)