Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State in south-east Nigeria and the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 election, has questioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his past campaign pledge on electricity supply after Nigeria’s national power grid suffered another collapse this month.
In a statement shared on Wednesday on Obi’s verified X account, the Nigerian opposition figure referred to a promise Tinubu made during the 2022 campaign period, saying the current instability in the electricity sector does not match the assurance Nigerians were given.
Obi’s statement was titled, “No Steady Power in Four Years, No Second Term,” and quoted Tinubu as saying during the campaign: “If I do not provide steady electricity in my first four years, do not vote for me for a second term.”
According to Obi, the national grid has collapsed twice in January 2026, even though the month had not ended at the time of his statement. He added that the grid collapsed about 12 times in 2025, a situation he said should alarm Nigerians because it reflects continued weakness in a sector that affects homes, hospitals, schools and businesses.
Okay News reports that frequent grid failures often lead to nationwide power cuts, forcing many families and companies to rely on private generators and other costly alternatives.
Obi argued that the repeated outages undermine public confidence in government promises and should be treated as an urgent national issue, not something to be normalised.
He also criticised President Tinubu’s foreign travel schedule, saying the Nigerian leader was in Turkey at a time Nigeria faced major domestic challenges. Turkey is a country that straddles Europe and Asia and has a population of about 87 million people, while Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has a population of more than 200 million.
Drawing a comparison between both countries, Obi said Turkey generates and distributes more than 120,000 megawatts of electricity, while Nigeria produces less than five per cent of that level. He described the difference as “both striking and painful.”
The former presidential candidate urged Tinubu to spend more time at home addressing governance problems, saying the focus should be on stabilising electricity supply and responding to everyday hardships rather than frequent trips abroad.
“Our appeal is simple: stay at home and confront the nation’s problems,” Obi said, warning that if the current trend continues, Nigerians might “soon hear of trips to Palau or Vanuatu while critical issues remain unattended at home.”
Obi also complained about what he called an unhealthy political fixation on the 2027 general elections, saying attention should shift toward practical solutions that improve living conditions and strengthen public services.
“And yet, our collective preoccupation seems to be the next election, rather than how to secure good governance,” he said.
He called on Nigerians to demand accountability and responsible leadership, arguing that citizens should not accept continued hardship linked to poor public administration and weak service delivery.
“We should be joining hands to demand accountability and responsible leadership, and to save Nigerians from the indignity and suffering caused by persistent bad governance,” Obi added.
