•Nigerian workers
Nigerian workers, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), have questioned the rationale behind the Tinubu-led federal government’s purported plan to pay between N2 trillion and N3 trillion to electricity generating companies (GenCos), alleging that the electricity subsidy remained a phantom move to “settle the boys” as the 2027 elections approach.
It said the privatisation of the power sector has thrown more Nigerians into darkness and widened energy poverty in 10 years, reports The Guardian.
Meanwhile, sparks flew at the Senate Committee on Finance as lawmakers openly confronted the management of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) over what they described as outrageous electricity billing practices and systemic unfairness in the power sector.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, at the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) yearly conference of women and youth in Abuja over the weekend, insisted that there was no justification for such a massive bailout to private firms that have failed to deliver.
“If this government is serious about the welfare of Nigerians, it must stop using our commonwealth to enrich a cartel of failed investors. Every kobo of the treasury belongs to the workers and people of Nigeria.”
While he issued a scorching indictment of the present power sector regime, Ajaero called for an immediate and comprehensive review of the entire sector.
He insisted that the state must return the power sector as a social service if it must make progress as a nation.
He cited global instances that showed that no nation had successfully run its electricity sector purely as a profit-driven enterprise without inflicting hardship on its citizens, thereby calling for the immediate return of the state as the primary driver of the power sector.
Noting that electricity was not a luxury for the rich, the NLC boss said it was a social service essential for national development.
He emphasised that it was only the state that could bear the huge capital investment required and the long gestation period for returns.
Claiming that the private sector has failed, he said it was time to take back the power for the people.
While he called for a people’s power roadmap, Ajaero acknowledged the new Electricity Act, which devolves power to the states, warning that decentralisation alone was not a magic wand.
According to him, without a clear, national and worker-centred roadmap, the bottlenecks will persist.
He said the NLC demands a national stakeholders’ summit with a genuine convergence of workers led by their unions, manufacturers, and genuine experts to draft a power sector roadmap that prioritises affordable and stable electricity for all.
He described it as a reversal of the failed privatisation model, service-reflective tariffs, not cost-reflective extortion and public investment in generation and transmission infrastructure.
While he sounded the alarm on the deplorable state of the nation’s electricity sector, he declared that the failed privatisation experiment 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 him, the Nigerian people cannot continue to pay for darkness, adding that the NLC stands ready to work with the masses and within its networks to resist any further exploitation in the name of electricity reform.
Stating that the power sector must be returned to the people, Ajaero lamented that over a decade after the much-celebrated privatisation of the power sector, electricity generation remained comically stagnant at between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts; the same level as the pre-privatisation era.
He said that it remained shameful and demonstrated how stagnated the nation had become.
Ajaero explained: “Instead of progress, we witness regression. Instead of light, we have darkness. The national grid collapses due to 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.”
The labour leader contended that the 2013 privatisation exercise was a mere transfer of public assets to investors allegedly lacking the technical and financial capacity to manage them effectively.
At the centre of the heated exchange was the Acting Managing Director/CEO of NBET, Akin Johnson, who appeared before the committee to defend the agency’s budget and operations.
Rather than a routine budget defence, the session quickly turned into a broader inquest into the deepening frustration of Nigerians grappling with high electricity charges amid unstable supply.
Leading the charge was Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who questioned the incentives NBET provides to independent Power Producers (IPPs), both local and foreign. She sought clarity on whether solar and gas-powered IPPs receive different forms of support and how those incentives are structured to attract investment into the struggling sector.
However, her inquiry soon pivoted to a more personal and relatable grievance.
“I own a property that has never been occupied,” she said.
“Yet I get billed every month. I was told it’s standard simply because I have a meter. It doesn’t even have a functioning bulb. Why is it so?”
Her remarks drew murmurs across the chamber, underscoring a complaint many Nigerians share — being billed for electricity they insist they did not consume.
Senator Mohammed Onawu followed with his own troubling experience involving prepaid electricity credits.
According to him, after purchasing credits worth N50,000, N40,000 and N10,000 separately, his staff first loaded the N10,000 unit, only for the system to reject the remaining credits.
