• Okpebholo seeks probe into incessant national grid collapse
• Obi knocks Tinubu, recalls ‘no steady power, no second term’ vow

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said persistent double-digit inflation erodes and continues to erode consumers’ purchasing power, thereby dampening demand for locally manufactured goods in the country. 

Following the second collapse of the national electricity grid on Tuesday, the second this January, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State called for a diligent legislative investigation into the nation’s persistent power outage and grid collapse.

Relatedly, a strong contender to the presidency, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu over the electricity crisis, recalling the President’s 2022 campaign promise to forgo a second term if he failed to deliver steady power within four years.

President of MAN, Francis Meshioye, lamented that while the broader economy recorded disinflation in 2025, with headline inflation moderating from 27.61 per cent in January to 15.15 per cent in December, price levels remained high, with no changes in operating expenses, cost of goods and services.
  
Speaking yesterday at the association’s Media Personality of the Year Award and outlook for the year at MAN House in Lagos, he revealed that the Manufacturers CEO’s Confidence Index (MCCI), which tracks manufacturers’ expectations and operating impulse, declined to 53.2 per cent in Q1 2025 from 56 per cent in Q4 2024, before further easing to 50.3 per cent in Q2 and only marginally recovering to 50.7 per cent in Q3.
 
This subdued confidence trajectory, he said, reflected the unfriendly macroeconomic environment during the period. 

Okpebholo, during an interface with the Federal House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Power Sector Reform and Expenditure in Benin City, yesterday, said: “For us to have a robust economy, we must get the power sector right. If we have stable electricity, Nigeria will be one of the best nations on earth.”

Represented by his deputy, Dennis Idahosa, the governor commended the committee chairman and members for their good work in the Green Chamber and the nation at large.

Chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Aliyu, said they were travelling nationwide to investigate and audit the power sector reforms from 2007 to 2024.

On the number of grid collapses between 2024 and 2025, Aliyu questioned factors responsible for the challenges and effectiveness of the power sector privatisation. 

These issues, he insisted, brought out the need to conduct a “forensic investigation on the policy itself, the strategies and role played by each stakeholder within the electricity sector, from 2007 to 2024”.

The committee chairman praised the Edo government for the key role it played in the power distribution sector by providing a steady power supply and even transformers to subscribers.

In a post shared on his Facebook page yesterday, Obi noted that the national grid had already collapsed twice this month, which had yet to end. He noted that the grid reportedly collapsed about 12 times in 2025, describing the situation as a sharp contradiction with Tinubu’s campaign pledge.

“Tinubu’s campaign promise in 2022 was clear: ‘If I do not provide steady electricity in my first four years, do not vote for me for a second term,’” Obi wrote. “Yet, the national grid continues to collapse with alarming frequency. This reality should worry every patriotic Nigerian.”

The former governor of Anambra State and Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election also criticised the President’s continued foreign trips, citing the most recent to Turkey, a country with about 87 million people, roughly one-third of Nigeria’s population.

He contrasted Turkey’s electricity output of over 120,000 megawatts with Nigeria’s power sector crisis, which he said remains at less than five per cent of that figure, describing the disparity as “striking and painful.”

He added: “Our appeal is simple: stay at home and confront the nation’s problems,” Obi stated, warning that unchecked governance failures could soon make foreign trips appear more important than addressing domestic crises.