By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has said Nigeria should reassess its status as “giant of Africa” to know if it is not a misnomer.
Obi said Nigeria lacks all the indices of the largest economy which it laid claim to in Africa until recently.
Obi, a former Anambra State governor maintained that the growth of Nigerian economy pales into insignificance when compared to that of South Africa until recently known as the second-largest economy.
He underlined the point that South Africa celebrated seven months of uninterrupted power supply recently stressing that the country’s population is not as large as Nigeria’s.
Obi attributed this unpleasant development to the epileptic power supply in Nigeria which he described as “worrisome”.
The LP presidential candidate expressed this view on his officially verified X handle on Wednesday.
He said: “Again, yesterday the now regular news came that the National Grid had collapsed once again. Just a few days ago, on the 25th of October, South Africa that was the second-largest economy in Africa behind Nigeria until recently, with a quarter of our population, celebrated seven months of uninterrupted power supply.
“South Africa generates and distributes about 40,000 MW of electricity, while Nigeria struggles to generate and distribute just 10% of that.”
Obi emphasised that the issue of crippling, epileptic power supply affects Nigerians across all regions and religious groups, dismissing any suggestions that certain groups benefit more than others in the energy sector.
“Is there any tribe in Nigeria that enjoys uninterrupted power supply like South Africa? I am labelled a tribal bigot. When I ask if any religion enjoys special privileges in this crisis, I am called a religious bigot. But I will continue to speak the truth about our situation today,” he said.
Stressing the need for collective action, Obi argued that solutions do not lie in tribal or religious divides but in a unified, visionary leadership.
“The fact remains that we are all suffering equally from this failure,” he said.
He added: “The fact remains that we are all suffering equally from this failure. The solution lies not in tribal or religious affiliations but in visionary leadership and a shared commitment to progress.
“We must set aside these primordial sentiments and elect leaders who are competent, capable, and have the vision to transform our nation from a consumer-driven economy to a productive one by investing our meagre resources in critical areas of development like health and education, lifting our people out of poverty, and ensuring increased electricity production and distribution.”
Nigerians were on Tuesday plunged into darkness following another collapse of the national power grid.
Since January 2024 till date, the grid has collapsed 10 times. Within one week in October, the grid collapsed three times with its attendant blackouts, sparking reactions from Nigerians.
