The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has descended on the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, over his recent claim that 150 million Nigerians now enjoy “adequate electricity” with a power generation capacity of 5,500 megawatts.
In a statement signed by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the NLC described the Minister’s remarks as “outrageous,” “pretentious,” and “a bad joke” on millions of Nigerians grappling daily with darkness, exorbitant tariffs, and a broken power sector.
Reacting to what it termed “statistical gymnastics,” the NLC dismissed the Minister’s assertion as both misleading and insulting to the lived experiences of ordinary Nigerians. The Congress pointed out that Nigeria’s power generation capacity has consistently hovered below 5,500MW; an amount grossly inadequate to serve a population of over 200 million. According to global benchmarks, a country should generate at least 1,000MW per one million people, suggesting that Nigeria ought to be producing no less than 150,000MW to meet the basic power needs of 150 million citizens.
Maybe the Minister aims to recreate Jesus’ miracle of feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish,” Ajaero sarcastically remarked. “Such achievements aren’t gauged through conventional metrics and might as well be seen as an overextended jest.
The NLC statement laid bare the dire reality across Nigeria—millions of citizens in rural communities and urban slums still live without electricity, while those with access endure frequent blackouts, arbitrary disconnections, and what the union described as “financial exploitation through a complex pyramid of inflated tariffs.”
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The Congress also criticized the 2013 privatization of the power sector, claiming it merely shifted vital national infrastructure into the control of individuals connected to those in power without bringing about notable improvements in services. “Despite more than ten years having passed, there hasn’t been substantial development in infrastructure or an increase in capacity,” Ajaero expressed regretfully. He pointed out that these Generation Companies (GenCos) and Distribution Companies (DISCOs), which have performed poorly, are poised to receive over N4 trillion in public funds—without any requirement for transparency or responsibility.”
Also, the NLC criticized the government’s reported plan to privatize the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) the last publicly owned component in the power value chain. Describing the move as “an economic ruse dressed in bureaucratic doublespeak,” the union warned that handing over TCN to private hands would further deepen the existing crisis in the sector.
The Congress similarly criticized the recently increased electricity rates, which were implemented as part of the contentious “Band A, B, and C” categorization. They described this new system as a “complex mechanism to legitimize exploitation,” pointing out that even though DISCOs have gathered more than N700 billion from customers, the delivery of power continues to be unreliable, inconsistent, and hard to obtain.
millions of Nigerians must now decide whether to spend their money on food or pay their electricity bills,” the statement said. “It is clear that those in leadership positions have either lost touch with their humanitarian concerns or simply do not care about the immense suffering caused by their policies.
The NLC condemned what they referred to as “regulatory impunity” and criticized a system that benefits private profit-seekers and high-ranking officials at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Meanwhile, employees in the power industry continue to face low wages and excessive workloads.
Comrade Ajaero issued a strong caution to the Minister and other prominent figures in the field: “The citizens of Nigeria have had enough of empty promises and deceptive information. Stop underestimating the public’s intellect. Only when electricity is effectively produced, transmitted, and delivered into our residences and industrial facilities will genuine progress be evident, rather than just reading about it in news articles.”
The labor movement pledged to rally and employ every legal method to oppose what they termed “major deceit” and “structured profit-making” under the guise of reforms. “Let there be clarity, not deceptions,” the NLC declared emphatically.
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