•Insists plan to spend N8bn on electricity sensitisation frivolous
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to step down if he is not able to stop the persistent collapse of the national electricity grid.
The Labour movement also criticised the proposal by Ministry of Power to set aside a whooping N8 billion in the 2025 proposed budget to sensitise the Nigerian public on how to pay their electricity bills, describing it as frivolous and questionable.
In a statement signed by the president of NLC, Joe Ajaero, the Congress said the country’s power sector was on the brink of collapse as a result of incompetence by those at the helm of affairs.
It said: “The power sector in Nigeria is at the brink of collapse as the helmsmen have repeatedly shown gross incompetence. It is a sector where the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) despite the enormous power invested in it by the Electricity Act of 2023 has continuously demonstrated incapacity to regulate or outrightly refused to discharge its responsibilities to electricity consumers in Nigeria while the Minister in charge is enamored with seeking about N8 billion to teach Nigerians how to pay electricity bills.
“It is therefore not surprising that power grid collapse is now a constant as it has continued to succumb to greed and crass incompetence.
“If the Ministry of Power is manned by competent officials, the now embarrassing constant grid collapse would have been averted instead of the worrying statement by the Minister that this will continue as if this has always been the norm.
“We believe that this is a clear admission of incapacity and failure by the Ministry and we wonder why they would not do the honourable thing by resigning.”
NLC noted that whereas the Minister was seeking N8 billion to educate Nigerians, contractors in the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) who help in delivering capacity are owed over N200 billion.
