President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has taken a swipe at Peter Obi’s electricity promise, saying the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) made his pledge without a clear understanding of the country’s existing power infrastructure.
Speaking on Arise Television on Tuesday, Onanuga said Nigeria’s electricity crisis is not a generation deficit but a structural one — rooted in gas supply shortages, an obsolete national grid, and a crippling legacy debt of over N4 trillion owed to gas suppliers by operators in the power sector.
His remarks were a direct response to Obi’s campaign pledge to add at least 10,000 megawatts to Nigeria’s electricity generation and distribution capacity within four years of assuming office.
“What people don’t know, and which unfortunately Peter Obi did not know — when he came and said he’s going to generate 10,000 megawatts — we already have in Nigeria stored capacity of 13,500 megawatts,” Onanuga said.
He argued that the former Anambra State governor’s promise was therefore not ambitious but uninformed, as the installed capacity he pledged to deliver already exists on paper. The challenge, Onanuga insisted, lies in unlocking that capacity.
To that end, he said the Tinubu administration established the Grid Asset Management Company Limited (GAMCO) to rehabilitate and optimise the country’s hydropower assets, while also signing the Electricity Act — a legislative reform that empowers states to independently generate, transmit, and distribute power.
“Some of the states are already taking advantage of that. More will do so. That will make the electricity sector open and more competitive,” he said.
Onanuga acknowledged that the sector remains far from optimal, but maintained that power output has improved since the administration took over in May 2023.
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