Amidst public backlash, Peter Obi makes u-turn over his comment on alleged national grid collapse

Following social media backlash, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election has made a u-turn over his controversial comment on the alleged collapse of the national grid.

After a power outage in some parts of Lagos on Saturday, January 11, 2025, which many erroneously attributed to national grid collapse, Obi, in a tweet said the incessant fall of the grid which happened 12 times in 2024 has subjected Nigerians to ‘untold setback and hardship.’

According to him, despite borrowing over $3.23 billion in the last four years to fix its electricity problems, the recurrent occurrences of grid collapse have continued to characterize Nigeria’s power sector.

Obi’s comment, however, sparked a flurry of reactions on X formerly Twitter, as many Nigerians criticized and accused him of not verifying issues before reacting to them.

Following Obi’s comment, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) clarified that the outage was caused by tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines indicating that the claims about grid collapse was fake news.

Amid the backlash, Obi reversed his stance, saying his initial comment was based on reports from reputable media platforms.

Quoting his earlier statement, Obi in a follow-up tweet said he has learnt that there was no grid collapse following TCN’s clarifications on the matter.

He tweeted: “Following my earlier message regarding the alleged collapse of the National Grid, which was based on reports from reputable media platforms, I have since learned that there was no such collapse. Instead, the incident involved the tripping of the Osogbo-Ihovbor and Benin-Omotosho lines, which affected the Lagos axis.

The former governor of Anambra State, therefore, thanked the TCN for their prompt clarifications, saying “I sincerely hope we will prioritize enhancing our infrastructure in the power sector and remain committed to improving power generation to meet the growing needs of over 200 million Nigerians.”