Opposition leader, Peter Obi, has urged Nigerians not to vote for President Bola Tinubu in the next election, stating that the President’s complaint of power outage at the Jos airport as the admission of president’s incompetence and failure to transform Nigeria’s power sector.
Obi, in a post on his X account on Saturday, described the April 2 brief stopover visit to Plateau state as a revealing moment in that the President cited the absence of electricity at the airport as a reason for limiting his visit to ten minutes.
“At a time when Nigerians are enduring days without power, our leaders cannot even stay a few minutes without it,” Obi wrote, framing the remark as proof of a leadership class detached from the hardship it had imposed on citizens.
During his visit to Plateau State on Thursday following the killings of at least 28 residents in Angwan Rukuba in the Jos North Local Government Area on Palm Sunday, Tinubu complained about the airport blackout while meeting with the families of victims and other political stakeholders in the state.
The President, who restricted his visit to the airport, spent only 10 minutes with the bereaved families and assured them of his administration’s support. This was as he reportedly said, “You have no light here — I fly out in ten minutes.”
Obi further invoked Tinubu’s own campaign promise that he should be denied a second term if he failed to improve electricity supply within four years. He recalled that the President had made the pledge during the 2023 presidential campaign, quoting the President as saying explicitly: “If I don’t give you constant electricity in four years, don’t vote for me for a second term.”
The former Anambra governor argued that the condition Tinubu set for himself had been met, in the negative, and that Nigerians should hold him to his word.
Describing the current situation as “a glaring display of disregard for promises and a lack of trust,” he pointed out that electricity generation had declined from the over 4,000 megawatts recorded when Tinubu assumed office in 2023, with the average now falling below that figure, while electricity tariffs had risen considerably.
The Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate also cited data placing Nigeria’s per capita electricity consumption at 144 kilowatt-hours, against an African average of 617 kWh.
“When he took office in 2023, Nigeria had a power supply of over 4,000 megawatts and lower tariffs. Today, the electricity power supply is less than 4,000 megawatts on the average, and Nigerians are paying higher tariffs.
“Nigeria currently has the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the world, with a rate below 30% of the African average. Africa’s average is 617kwh, Nigeria’s is 144 kWh. This means that Nigerians consume least electricity than other Africans,” he said.
He called on Nigerians to use future elections to demand better governance, arguing that the electricity crisis was symptomatic of a broader failure of character and capacity at the top.
“Now is the time to stop incompetent leaders — those lacking the capacity and compassion — who prioritise their own comfort over the well-being of the people and make empty promises,” the chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) asserted.
