Labour Party chieftain, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, berated President Bola Tinubu’s administration over disconcerting power outages in the country due to recurring grid failures.

In a statement on X, Mr Obi mocked Mr Tinubu’s administration for putting ordinary Nigerians in darkness despite the president’s campaign promise to deliver uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.

“The impact is too glaring for Nigerians to forget the promise of Mr. President Bola 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”, the politician said.

Mr Obi’s statement came hours after the Abuja Electric Distribution Plc announced power outage due to a loss of supply from the national grid which affected electricity supply across its franchise areas.

According to him, Nigeria has a higher number of people living without electricity than anywhere in the world. 

While decrying repeated blackouts in the country, the Labour Party chieftain knocked the ruling All Progressives Congress for presiding over more national grid failures and power outages than any government in the country’s history.

Mr Obi further slammed the APC-led government’s failure to generate more electricity despite spending more on the power sector than countries such as Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh which he said have doubled their electricity generation to transform their economies and increase their GDP.

“With a GDP of about $200 billion, Nigeria has the capacity to significantly boost its economy if it invests properly in electricity. Generating even a bare minimum of 10,000MW could raise our GDP by about 50%, which will unlock industrial growth, and create millions of jobs. But rather than focusing on this, which will improve our economy, we are focused on coastal roads that will contribute far less to our economic growth, while factories shut down, jobs disappear, businesses collapse, and ordinary Nigerians live in darkness,” the Labour Party chieftain explained.

The politician charged Mr Tinubu to focus on generating and distributing electricity to facilitate economic growth and create more job opportunities for Nigerians.

“Mr. President, it is time to prioritise generating and distributing more electricity to power businesses, especially NSME, which will create jobs and grow the economy,” the politician added.