Get Guardian on GoogleTHE All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) said President Bola Tinubu’s administration has metered over 1.5 million electricity customers as part of efforts to fulfil his 2023 campaign promise to end estimated billing and ensure reliable electricity supply.
Defending his record in the power sector, the council said that though the country’s electricity crisis remained unresolved, the administration had introduced far-reaching reforms and interventions to address the structural, institutional and financial challenges confronting the sector.
However, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on Tinubu’s campaign organisation to explain reports that it was producing 40,000 customised tablets in China for the 2027 presidential election mobilisation.
The association also challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the reported project and establish the source of its funding.
In a statement yesterday, the spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, urged Nigerians to assess Tinubu’s electricity pledge within its full context, arguing that some public commentaries had ignored the concluding qualification in the president’s campaign statement.
Top among his promises in the sector, the president had challenged Nigerians not to re-elect him if he failed to fulfil the promise of uninterruptible power supply.
However, Alake said Tinubu had moved quickly to address the structural challenges confronting the sector by signing the Electricity Act, 2023, on June 9, barely two weeks after assuming office.
He said the legislation liberalised and deregulated the electricity market, allowing state governments to participate in electricity generation, transmission and distribution. He added that the administration had also taken steps to address the electricity sector’s accumulated legacy debt of over N6 trillion, incurred between 2015 and 2025.
On infrastructure, Alake said the Rural Electrification Agency had connected universities, hospitals and rural communities to solar power, while the government had unveiled plans to modernise the Osogbo Grid Control Centre, which was built more than 60 years ago, and construct an East-West super grid, among others.
MEANWHILE, in a statement yesterday, HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, expressed concern that the reported procurement could further entrench the influence of money and material inducements in Nigeria’s electoral process, particularly amid widespread economic hardship and the federal government’s continued reliance on borrowing to finance public expenditure.
The association also demanded clarification on their total cost, the individuals or organisations behind the procurement and whether public funds or private political donations were involved, saying that reports indicated that the devices would carry campaign messages in English, Yoruba and Hausa before being distributed to supporters.
Questioning the need for such an expensive mobilisation exercise, HURIWA urged the APC and Tinubu’s campaign organisation to make the financial arrangements public and demonstrate that the project complies with electoral and financial regulations.
Among others, the association also raised concerns about what it described as a contradiction between the reported capacity to finance tens of thousands of campaign devices and the government’s continued borrowing to meet national obligations.
