Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the upcoming 2023 general election, has expressed serious concerns regarding the continuous power challenges in the country. He highlighted the staggering number of 141 national grid collapses in just 11 years and emphasized the need for immediate and practical solutions.
Obi pointed out that despite Nigeria having a power capacity of only 13,000mw, the demand for electricity is around 200,000mw. He highlighted that out of the 13,000mw, a mere 3,500mw is accessible for households and businesses, placing Nigeria at the lowest per capita electricity consumption globally.
In his article titled “The Collapsing Electricity Sector,” Obi warned about the imminent collapse of the Nigerian electricity supply industry, attributing the frequent system failures to avoidable incidents like fires at crucial transmission lines in major cities. He criticized the lack of effective management that results in prolonged power outages across the nation.
Obi stressed the disparity between Nigeria’s energy capacity and that of other African countries like Egypt and South Africa, illustrating the detrimental impact on economic growth and human development. He emphasized the urgent need for reforms in the generation, transmission, and distribution sectors to address the power crisis.
He called out the government’s failure to address challenges such as gas supply constraints, infrastructure bottlenecks, and inadequate investment in modern technologies, which have hampered the growth of the electricity sector. Obi also emphasized the importance of appointing competent leadership to drive policy reforms and attract private sector investments.
He proposed the immediate establishment of a technical task force composed of industry professionals to diagnose and rectify the sector’s challenges. This includes improving coordination between key stakeholders, tackling system failures, and ensuring accountability among operators to enhance power availability in the short term.
Obi advocated for the development of a comprehensive national electricity policy and implementation roadmap to deliver reliable, affordable electricity across the country. He emphasized that Nigeria cannot achieve economic growth in the absence of stable and adequate power supply.