Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has accused President Bola Tinubu of failing to live up to his campaign promise on electricity, following repeated collapses of national grid.
In a statement posted on X on Wednesday, Obi recalled Tinubu’s 2022 pledge that Nigerians should not vote him for a second term if he failed to deliver stable electricity within his first four years in office.
According to the former Anambra governor, recent events sharply contradict that assurance. He noted that the national grid has already collapsed twice in January 2026 alone, even before the month ended.
“Last year, the grid collapsed about twelve times. This reality sharply contradicts the promise and should worry every patriotic Nigerian,” Obi said, describing the persistent outages as unacceptable for Africa’s most populous nation.
Obi also criticised the president’s continued foreign trips, arguing that they come at a time when pressing domestic issues demand urgent attention.
He pointed to President Tinubu’s visit to Turkey, contrasting the two countries’ power sectors. Turkey, with a population of about 87 million—roughly a third of Nigeria’s—generates and distributes more than 120,000 megawatts of electricity, while Nigeria struggles to produce less than five per cent of that figure.
“The contrast is both striking and painful,” Obi said.
Urging Nigerians to shift focus from electoral politics to governance, Obi called for collective pressure on leaders to address the country’s deepening challenges.
“Our appeal is simple: stay at home and confront the nation’s problems,” he said, warning that attention to foreign travel and future elections risks ignoring the immediate need for accountability and responsible leadership.
