Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, says if he is elected president, the frequent collapse of the national grid will become a thing of the past.
Mr Obi made the promise on Wednesday while reacting to the collapse of the national grid on Tuesday – the seventh time since the year began – throwing the nation into darkness.
In a statement on Twitter, the former Anambra governor who had travelled to Egypt to study how the North African country tripled its power generation, vowed to tackle the issue he described as a top priority for his incoming administration.
“The report of yet another national grid collapse is very disturbing to me, and is a reminder of the long rescue and recovery journey ahead of us,” Mr Obi lamented. “Effective power generation, transmission and distribution remain a national security issue.
“This also places power in the front burner of campaign and policy. Painfully, this latest episode is the 7th national grid collapse in 2022. As part of the Obi-Datti policy plan, we have put together a strategic plan to progressively scale up power generation, and the liberalisation of the transmission infrastructure in the country, to ensure that Nigerians enjoy adequate and stable power supply from 2023 onwards. Power is critical to the development and sustainability of all sectors of the national economy.
“For us, power remains a top priority. Under my watch, national grid collapse will become a matter of history and a reference point for erstwhile administrations,” he promised.
