• Nigeria on path of sustainable power sector, Adelabu replies
• Commissions new NAPTIN facilities, seeks global support for sector reform
The Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has berated President Bola Tinubu’s administration over power outages in the country due to recurring grid failures.
In a statement on X, Obi mocked Tinubu’s administration for putting ordinary Nigerians in darkness despite the President’s campaign promise to deliver an uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.
He said: “The impact is too glaring for Nigerians to forget the promise of Tinubu while campaigning on December 22, 2022, in which he said that “if I don’t give you constant electricity in the next four years, don’t vote for me for a second term.” Obi’s statement came hours after the collapse of the national grid.
According to him, Nigeria has a higher number of people living without electricity than anywhere in the world. Obi, while decrying repeated blackouts in the country, chided the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for presiding over more national grid failures and power outages than any government in the country’s history.
He further slammed the APC-led government’s failure to generate more electricity despite spending more on the power sector than any other country, such as Vietnam, Egypt, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
Obi, therefore, charged Tinubu to focus on generating and distributing electricity to facilitate economic growth and create more job opportunities for Nigerians.
MEANWHILE, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, yesterday, in Abuja, called for international support to reform and strengthen Nigeria’s electricity sector, stressing the need for workforce training to stabilise the industry.
Adelabu, who spoke during the commissioning of new facilities at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), said the initiative would be a critical step towards building capacity for the country’s rapidly evolving energy landscape.
The minister expressed appreciation to Tinubu for prioritising infrastructure as the foundation for national transformation, noting that the President’s vision lies in providing key infrastructures that will provide hope for the vibrant youthful population and transform into meaningful economic prosperity for all in Nigeria.
According to him, the newly commissioned NAPTIN facilities will equip Nigerian youths with modern tools and access to cutting-edge technologies, enabling them to acquire the expertise required to drive innovation, efficiency, and sustainability in the power sector.
Adelabu also commended the French Government and the European Union (EU) for their support through the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and EU funding, describing the partnership as central to the success of the project. He linked the development to the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, underscoring the administration’s commitment to transforming the power sector.
The minister, therefore, urged stakeholders to see NAPTIN’s facilities as a shared resource and “their first point of call before considering training outside of Nigeria.”
Adelabu, while commending the Director-General of NAPTIN and his team for delivering the project, described the commissioning as symbolic, saying that the event was not just the unveiling of buildings, “but the unveiling of hope, opportunity, and a brighter future for Nigeria’s power sector.
