….Says Nigeria Trapped in Energy Poverty
Following the persistent collapse of the national grid, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded an immediate and total overhaul of the power industry.
In a statement on Sunday 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 read “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.
Comrade Ajaero lamented that over a decade after what he described as “much-celebrated privatisation of the Power Sector”, he argued that “electricity generation remains comically stagnant at between 4,000 and 5,000 Megawatts, the exact same level as the pre-privatisation era.”
Ajaero described the result as “shameful and demonstrated how stagnated our nation has become.”
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.”
