The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Thursday, urged Nigerians to rise up for “effective change” in the country.
While lamenting the country’s epileptic power supply, the presidential candidate said it was time for Nigerians to demand what was right from the country’s leaders.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, the former Anambra State governor noted Nigerians should take a cue from global best practices and effect good leadership.
He wrote, “Nigeria’s epileptic electricity supply remains a matter of deep concern. Although South Africa, the second biggest economy on the continent has a population of over 60 million, and generates over 50,000 megawatts.
“Her authorities are currently complaining of an energy crisis; thus compelling President Ramaphosa to declare an emergency situation and an intervention policy permitting private persons or corporations to generate up to 100 megawatts without licenses.
“Nigeria, the African giant with over 200 million people, generates a paltry 4000 megawatts, which is less than 10% of South Africa’s without declaring a power crisis or emergency.
“Nigerians should take a cue from global governance best practices; grasp what people-oriented leadership is all about and rise up for effective change. – PO”
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company confirmed that the grid collapse occurred at about 11:27 am.
“Dear customers, we regret to inform you of a system collapse on the national grid at precisely 11:27 am today, Wednesday, July 20. We are in talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ascertain the cause of the collapse and a possible restoration timeline.
“We will keep you updated on the situation,” the Disco said via its Twitter handle on Wednesday.
The collapse of the national power grid made it the sixth time this year, as The PUNCH reported on June 13 that the grid had collapsed for the fifth time in 2022.
Nigeria’s power grid had collapsed twice in March and twice again in April this year, as the power generation on the system had continued to fluctuate due to various concerns such as gas constraints, water management challenges, and gas pipeline vandalism, among others.
In April, The PUNCH reported that the quantum of electricity on the grid crashed from over 3,000MW on April 8, 2022, to as low as 10MW around 21.00 hours the same day.
The report further stated that another collapse of the grid occurred on April 9, 2022, as the nation’s power system collapsed to 33MW around 01.00 hours after it had earlier posted a peak generation of 3,281.50MW at 00.00 hours the same day.
Also, the national grid collapsed twice in March and this happened within a space of two days, a development that made the Federal Government summon a meeting of stakeholders to address the issue.
