By Angela Ohuabunwa
Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has criticised the latest collapse of Nigeria’s national power grid, describing the country’s electricity generation capacity as unacceptably low.
The national grid collapsed on Friday, causing power generation to drop from over four thousand five hundred megawatts to about twenty-four megawatts, plunging homes and businesses nationwide into darkness.
In a statement titled “2026:
The Collapse Continues”, Obi said the incident reflected a recurring failure, noting that similar grid collapses occurred repeatedly in 2025.
He lamented that nearly one hundred million Nigerians still lack access to electricity and described the country’s average power output of about five thousand megawatts as “absurd” for a nation of over two hundred and forty million people.
Obi compared Nigeria’s power generation with other African countries such as South Africa, Egypt and Algeria, which generate over forty thousand megawatts each.
He blamed the persistent power crisis on leadership failures and urged Nigerians to prioritise competence and compassion in choosing leaders ahead of the 2027 general elections.
