The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has expressed deep concerns over the perennial power situation in the country, recording 141 times of national grid collapse in 11 years and calls for urgent pragmatic solutions.
Obi noted that Nigeria has only 13,000mw while the demands are about 200,000mw.
He said that even with the 13,000mw, only about 3,500mw are available for homes and businesses, noting that the situation puts Nigeria as the lowest per capita wattage in the world.
In an article, titled, ‘The Collapsing Electricity Sector’, the LP standard’s bearer, said, “The Nigeria electricity supply industry faces real and present danger of collapse despite the efforts made in more than two decades to initiate a reform of the NESI.
“It is sad today that we suffer periodic and routinised system collapses that are attributed to such avoidable situations as fire outbreaks at critical transmission lines across our major cities. It is absolutely distressing and a story of a low level of managerial capability that the entire nation can be plunged into total darkness for a reasonable period because networks go out because of a lack of diligent attention.
“It should worry any Nigerian patriot that the total installed capacity for a country of more than 200 million people with an aspiration to become a global medium economy power is a mere 13,000. Worse still, only about 3,500mw are available for homes and businesses from the grid. Sometimes, it grinds to less than 2,500mw. This is unacceptable.
“We can contrast the available supply of electricity with competitor countries in Africa like Egypt and South Africa with respective populations of approximately 112m and 59.6m people supplying about 60,000mw and 58,000, respectively.
This difference in energy wattage has massive implications for human development and economic growth. Nigeria today has the world’s lowest per capita wattage in the world, lower than those of most of our West African neighbours. It is really sad that whereas our energy demand is above 200,000mws, we have only 13,000mw installed.
