Amid the frequent collapse of the National grid, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has raised an alarm over the sector’s instability, demanding an immediate and total overhaul of the power industry.
In a late Sunday statement signed by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, NLC argued that the privatisation experiment has plunged Nigerian workers and industries into ‘energy poverty.’
He blamed the frequent national grid collapses on the persistent rejection of load by Distribution Companies (DisCos) from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The statement reads, “We once again sound the alarm on the deplorable state of the nation’s electricity sector. We declare that the failed privatisation experiment has plunged Nigerian workers, women, youth, and industries into deeper energy poverty as the national grid continues to collapse while DISCOs persistently reject Loads from the Transmission Company.”
According to the statement, Ajaero made the call while speaking at the National Union of Electricity Employees’ (NUEE) Annual Conference of Women and Youth in Abuja on Friday, issuing a scorching indictment of the current Power Sector regime, calling for an immediate and comprehensive review of the entire sector.
Ajaero described the result as “shameful and demonstrated how stagnated our nation has become.”
“Instead of progress, we witness regression. Instead of light, we have darkness. The national grid collapses with the frequency of a faulty generator, sometimes plunging the entire nation into a blackout. This is not the ‘turnaround’ we were promised; this is a well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people,” Ajaero stated.
NLC maintained that the power sector privatisation was a “grand deception”, describing the exercise as a “fraudulent transfer of public wealth into the hands of a few speculators who lacked both the technical expertise and the financial backbone to manage the nation’s electricity assets.”
“The Nigerian people cannot continue to pay for darkness.
