Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi yesterday berated the President Muhammadu Buhari- led administration over the collapse of the nation’s national grid for the sixth time in seven months.

This was just as presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has proposed a solution to the challenges in the country’s power sector.

Obi in his verified social media handles described the failure in the power sector under the current administration as negative parameters that was not only benchmarks for governance failure, but a compelling catalyst for leadership change.

He wrote:

Reports that the national power grid has collapsed for the sixth time in seven months is alarming. Once again, many Nigerians have been left to grope around in darkness without electricity.

Such negative parameters are not only benchmarks for governance failure, but a compelling catalyst for leadership change.

He charged the federal government to live up to its statutory responsibilities to avert socio-economic incidents that induce extreme shock and stress on the nation’s population.

In a nation where many go the bed hungry, and national bakers going on strike is indicative of the high-stress level in both the productive realm of our economy and quality of life.

Also, for bread, one of the basic and affordable daily sustenance of the average Nigerian to become unavailable translates to a national crisis,

he added.

To Atiku, the innovative financing solution would involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal and regulatory environment to promote private investment in the sector.

In a series of Tweets on Wednesday, Atiku wrote:

I am reliably informed that there was a total National Grid Collapse at precisely 12:23pm today. This is one collapse too many. It is the 6th time this is happening this year alone.

Due to the priority that I place on the power sector upon which the successes of other sectors are hinged, I am proposing innovative financing of infrastructure that will involve the facilitation of a review of the financial, legal, and regulatory environment to promote private investment in power, among other sectors.

I’ll promote the incentivisation, with tax breaks, a consortium of private sector institutions to establish an Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to primarily mobilise domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all the sectors of the economy.

The IDF will have an initial investment capacity of approximately US$20 billion. In addition, I’ll cause the creation of an Infrastructure Development Credit Guarantee Agency to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.