The Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) has criticised the Federal Government’s decision to privatise the power sector, maintaining that the move is a complete failure as citizens still pay heavily for ‘megawatts of darkness’.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba made the claims on Monday at the maiden edition of Nigeria Employers Summit 2022 organised by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association(NECA) in Abuja.
Wabba who was represented by the Deputy President of NLC, Najeem Usman Yasin, decried a situation where Nigeria is losing businesses to neighbouring African countries due to epileptic power supply in the country.
According to him, “The recent slump in the national electricity supply which is a result of constant failure of our electricity grids indicates that Nigeria still has a long way to go in making power supply available to the citizenry.
“The organised private sector has concluded that the state of the public electricity supply as of today, as evidence that most productive and residential areas in Nigeria no longer enjoy up to six hours of electricity supply.
“This has confirmed that the recent privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector is a complete failure. Nigerians still pay heavily for megawatts of darkness.” He insisted.
NLC, however, urged the government to consider the reversal of the privatisation of the power sector and the return of power sector assets to Nigerians.
Wabba said “Government has tried provision of palliatives and bail-out to the so-called private sector investors in the power sector, but all to no avail.”
He pointed out that for the organised private sector to contribute significantly to wealth generation, job creation, and fostering of sustainable national development that it has become imperative for government to create enabling environment for the private sector.
Recently, the government have had cause to complain about the negative effect of vandals on the nation’s power infrastructures, as national grid keeps collapsing.