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Peter Obi Recants Statement on National Grid Collapse, Praises TCN for Clarification

Published by Tope Fakinlede on January 12th, 2025.

Peter Obi Recants Statement on National Grid Collapse, Praises TCN for Clarification

Peter Obi

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has revised his earlier comments regarding the alleged collapse of Nigeria’s national grid. This follows his statement in response to blackouts in parts of Lagos on Saturday, where he had criticized the frequent grid failures, which he claimed had occurred 12 times in 2024, and were causing severe hardship for Nigerians.

In his initial post on X, Obi lamented that despite borrowing over $3.23 billion in the past four years to address the country’s power challenges, the recurring grid failures had persisted, severely affecting the nation’s power infrastructure. However, his remarks drew significant backlash, with many accusing him of reacting without fully verifying the situation.

Subsequently, Obi retracted his statement, acknowledging that his initial comment was based on media reports and not on firsthand verification. He explained that, after further clarification from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), he learned that there was no grid collapse. The issue, he clarified, stemmed from the tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which disrupted power in the Lagos area.

In a follow-up post, Obi expressed appreciation to the TCN for providing clarity on the matter and reiterated his commitment to advocating for improvements in Nigeria’s power infrastructure. “I hope we can prioritize enhancing our infrastructure and focus on boosting power generation to meet the needs of over 200 million Nigerians,” he added.

Earlier, the TCN confirmed that the outage was not caused by a grid collapse but by the tripping of the identified power lines, refuting the claims of a national grid failure.