Obi Laments Constant Collapse of National Grid, Decries 5,000MW Low Capacity

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised the latest collapse of the national power grid, describing it as a continuation of a deepening national crisis.

The national electricity grid collapsed on Friday, with generation plunging sharply from above 4,500 megawatts to as low as 24 MW by about 1:30 pm.

This left households and businesses across the country in darkness and disrupted supply to millions of consumers.

All 23 power plants connected to the grid reportedly lost output during the incident, resulting in zero allocation to the nation’s 11 distribution companies.

In a statement posted on X yesterday titled “2026: The Collapse Continues”, Obi said the grid failure recorded in January 2026 mirrored events of the previous year, when the first collapse of 2025 also occurred in January and was followed by several others.

“In January 2025, we witnessed the first grid collapse of that year, which was followed by several other collapses. Now in January 2026, the national shame has commenced with yesterday’s collapse,” he said.

Obi lamented Nigeria’s poor access to electricity, noting that the country had remained at the bottom of global rankings for three consecutive years.