2023: Obi Promises 15,000mw Of Electricity

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP Peter Obi has promised that his government will generate 15,000 megawatts of electricity if he’s elected president next year.

The presidential hopeful is among the top contestants for 2023 presidential election. Watchers of politics in the country insist that the election will be a three-horse race between two other presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Ahmed Tinubu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC respectively.

Analysts who spoke with the magazine said electricity is one of the issues that will dominate the presidential debate as the INEC has fixed September for parties to start their political campaigns.

This is not a surprise considering that previous governments have failed abysmally to end power failures in the country. Under the current government, businesses have suffered, and many companies have also moved to neighbouring countries due to constant power failures despite the Buhari administration’s promise to tackle the issue when it swept to power in 2015.

For instance, the national grid has collapsed at least six times this year as many Nigerians give up on the administration’s capacity to end incessant power failures.

To tackle the problem, experts in the energy sector say the government must improve generation, distribution and transmission. The current electricity generation stands at less than 5,000 megawatts, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

Speaking in Toronto, Canada on Sunday as part of his foreign trips to garner international support for his presidential bid, Obi said his government will ensure that aggregate electricity generation increased by 200 per cent if he succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari as commander in chief next year.

The presidential hopeful and former Governor of Anambra state said he will achieve this through a public-private partnership.

“We intend to lay special emphasis on critical infrastructures, especially Power, to ensure a clear measurable increase of today’s generation, transmission and distribution by 200% within the shortest possible time, through public-private partnership,” Obi said.