The Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has apologised for his remarks regarding the purported collapse of Nigeria’s national grid.
Nigerians have endured “untold setbacks and hardship” as a result of the grid’s continuous collapse, which occurred 12 times in 2024, Obi said in a post on X following Saturday’s blackouts in sections of Lagos.
Despite borrowing more than $3.23 billion over the past four years to address its electricity issues, he claimed, the country’s power sector has remained tarnished by frequent grid collapses.
However, many Nigerians criticised him, accusing him of failing to confirm problems before responding to them.
Subsequently, Obi changed his mind, claiming that his original statement was supported by reports from reliable media sources.
Following comments from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Obi stated in a follow-up post on X that he had heard that there was no grid failure.
“I have recently discovered that there was no National Grid collapse, despite my previous statement claiming that there had been one, which was based on reporting from reliable media outlets. As an alternative, the Lagos axis was impacted by the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines tripping.
“Thank you to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for providing me with a timely explanation of this issue.
“I genuinely hope we will make improving our power sector infrastructure a top priority and stay dedicated to boosting power generation to meet the expanding needs of more than 200 million Nigerians.”
According to the TCN, the outage was caused by the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines tripping, proving that the reports of a grid collapse were untrue.
