Presidency denies Tinubu promised 24-hour electricity, blasts Obi’s resignation call

The Presidency has fiercely debunked claims that  Bola Tinubu President  promised 24-hour electricity to all Nigerians during his 2023 campaign, labeling the allegations a “mischievous” misrepresentation of facts. In a sharp rebuttal issued on Monday, June 22, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga clarified that Tinubu’s campaign remarks in Lagos targeted the eradication of arbitrary estimated billing rather than a guarantee of around-the-clock power. The statement came in direct response to opposition leader Peter Obi, who had cited power grid failures and economic hardship to demand the President’s immediate resignation.

Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), argued that Tinubu should step down, drawing a parallel to Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister, who he claimed resigned due to citizen dissatisfaction. Obi specifically reminded voters of an alleged campaign trail vow where Tinubu supposedly told Nigerians not to re-elect him if he failed to deliver uninterrupted power.

 

Rejecting Obi’s narrative, Onanuga insisted that the President’s words were completely stripped of their original context. He explained that Tinubu’s 2023 campaign speech in Lagos was explicitly focused on relieving consumers from the financial burden of unmetered, estimated billing.

According to Onanuga, the exact quote from the campaign was:

“Whichever way, by all means necessary, you will have electricity, and you will not pay for estimated bills anymore. A promise made will be a promise kept. If I don’t keep the promise and I come for a second term, don’t vote for me unless I give you adequate reasons why I couldn’t deliver.”

 

The presidential aide emphasised that rewriting the speech to mean a guarantee of nationwide 24-hour electricity was a deliberate attempt by the opposition to mislead the public.

 

To defend the administration’s actual performance against the opposition’s criticisms, Onanuga highlighted key structural milestones achieved by the Tinubu government to fix the energy sector.

 

He noted that the administration has already signed the Electricity Act, which de-centralizes electricity regulation and allows states and private entities to generate and distribute their own power.

 

The government has also expanded prepaid meter deployment across the country to aggressively combat the very estimated billing system Tinubu campaigned against, while investing heavily in alternative power sources to diversify the national energy mix and improve long-term grid reliability.