Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, has fired back at his fellow presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), saying he knows “absolutely nothing” about Nigeria, following the latter’s criticism of the ex-VP’s reaction to the collapse of the national grid.
Recall that the national power grid shutdown for the 6th time in 2022, reducing power distribution to 0MW on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
In reaction, Atiku tweeted, “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.”
In response to Atiku’s tweet, Sowore accused the Obasanjo/Atiku administration of procuring darkness for Nigeria, referring to the controversial investment of $16bn in power generation by the administration.
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He tweeted, “The National Electrical grid collapse started when you and Obasanjo invested $16 billion to procure darkness for Nigeria, the @MBuhari regime came to gazette grid collapse as a law. Alhaji @atiku, don’t pretend that you care about the National Grid! #WeCantContinueLikeThis”
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Speaking during an exclusive interview on Arise News, Atiku responded to Sowore’s jab saying, “He’s my opponent, what do you expect him to say? He has all along lived outside this country. He doesn’t even know the policy implementation or even the policy initiative.
“When we came in, the total generation was about 4,000MW, we initiated the building of 9 additional power stations. By the time those 9 were finished, capacity had gone from 4000MW to 13,000 MW. Unfortunately, no corresponding increase as far as the transmission lines are concerned.
“There is no way when your transmission lines cannot evacuate the power that you are producing, that they will not collapse. So they keep on collapsing.
“These additional 9 power stations were completed by Jonathan. Umaru (President Umar Musa Yar Adua) was on it, he died and Jonathan continued and he completed them.
“So that’s why anytime there is an increase in power generation and you have a transmission system that cannot evacuate the power, there will be a collapse.
“So he doesn’t even know, because he lives outside this country. He comes every four years and contests for the presidency, he fails and goes back again.
“So what does Sowore know about this country? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!!“