In a social media post, former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has accused Peter Obi of the Labour Party of supporting President Bola Tinubu’s controversial electricity tariff increase as a way to “decimate people with low incomes.”
Sowore, who ran for president in 2019 under the African Action Congress (AAC) party, did not mince words in his criticism of both Obi and Tinubu’s administration over the highly unpopular move to triple electricity tariffs for some Nigerians.
He claimed that despite Obi’s populist rhetoric about taxing the rich, the former Anambra governor is actually aligned with Tinubu in making life harder for low-income Nigerians through policies like the electricity price hikes.
“They support their Uncle @officialAbat to decimate people with low incomes; as soon as people with low incomes are further destroyed, they start commissioning boreholes for them. DUMB People!” Sowore wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
Sowore also mocked Obi’s pre-election trip to Egypt, where the Labour Party candidate had claimed he was studying that country’s electricity generation and distribution model. According to the AAC leader, Obi merely “visited a switchboard in one Egyptian power station” before returning to Nigeria.
“These guys are just so dumb that they wake up and ‘Copy and paste’ slogans from other climes,” Sowore said, referring to Obi’s visits abroad in search of policy solutions.
The Tinubu administration recently approved a 300% increase in electricity tariffs for some customers in urban areas, raising rates from around 68 naira to 225 naira per kilowatt hour. The hike has been met with an outcry from citizens, labor unions, the opposition and even some lawmakers in Tinubu’s own party who say it is ill-timed amid high inflation and hardship facing many Nigerians.
In his post, Sowore questioned the ability of populist politicians like Obi to truly “tax the rich,” asking “how do you tax the rich who hide their wealth in tax havens?”
Sowore’s broadside highlights the deep divisions within the Nigerian opposition over Tinubu’s economic policies in the early days of his administration. With inflation raging and consumer prices soaring, any move seen as increasing the burden on the masses is likely to draw fierce condemnation from opposition figures and activists.
Whether Obi himself weighs in to defend his position on the electricity price issue remains to be seen. But Sowore’s criticism underscores how swiftly political alliances can shift in Nigeria as the fight over the nation’s future economic direction intensifies.
Electricity tariff hike: Peter Obi supports Tinubu to decimate the poor – Sowore published in Daily post.