- Warns That Disaster Ahead On Nation’s Power Sector Would Be Multidimensional
THE NIGERIAN Labour Congress (NLC) has stated in a statement that the planned unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) by the federal government is a great danger to the power sector.
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), stated in a statement Wednesday in reaction to federal government’s revelation on Tuesday that it is planning to unbundle or restructure the TCN into two separate entities.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had disclosed while speaking at a Ministerial Retreat by the Ministry of Power held in Abuja said the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) transmission sub-sector has been identified as a critical weak point in the electricity value chain.
“To align with the Electricity Act 2023 and the industry’s demands, it is time to restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into two entities: the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider (TSP),” Adelabu said.
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The NLC, in its reaction, argued that the government has clearly hidden motives. “It portends great danger to the Power sector and holds great fear and trepidation for major stakeholders within the Power sector,” Comrade Ajaero said, adding that the plan will endanger the ability of the state to control, regulate and guarantee the safety of the nation’s grid system at all times.
“We want to quickly say that the idea behind the so-called plans to restructure is the same big grammar that was spoken before and during the failed privatisation exercise of the sector.
“They are the same stories that Nigerians have heard over the years which have largely yielded no significant results except the increased suffering that the exercise became for Nigerian people and the economy,” he added.
Ajaero said it is clear that the main motive behind the plans for the proposed restructuring is none other than to prepare the TCN for eventual takeover by the cronies and lackeys of the ruling elite.
“When words like unbundling are bandied about in Nigeria, the masses and workers become frightened because of the level of misery such words have foisted on the people,” he said, noting that unbundling heralded the death of the downstream sector of the nation’s petroleum sector.
“It sounded the death knell on the power sector and raising its ugly spectre once again at this time when the people are facing serious socio-economic challenges that may compound the woes of the people,” Ajaero said, adding that the NLC believes that the President is making the same mistake that previous administrations have made with the policy direction the minister of power is trying to follow in seeking to unbundle TCN for privatisation.
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“We had thought that the president would have convened a genuine national stakeholders’ forum to critically review the privatisation exercise in the sector which the government itself agrees has failed to attain any of its major objectives rather than seeking to embark on another exercise that would bring more crisis to the power sector.
“The disaster that will befall the nation’s power sector would be multidimensional. The quest to ultimately hand over the transmission infrastructure would expose the nation to blackmail and weaken the ability of the sector to transmit and distribute power around the country,” Ajaero noted, as he stressed that privatising TCN will create the same crisis prevailing within the distribution companies (DisCos) and generation companies (GenCos) and will impact negatively on the quality of service deliverance by the power sector to Nigerians.
“It has to be remembered that we protested against a nation that was hell-bent on committing suicide in the power sector 10 years ago. We talked about the consequences of the privatisation exercise that was going to be for the power sector and Nigerians but it was not heeded.
“Today, Nigerians have witnessed a 500 per cent tariff increase yet, there is no improvement in services to Nigerians,” Ajaero said and added that the power sector remains stagnant as no significant investment was made by those who bought the GenCos and DisCos through proxies.
“What we are reaping today are the unfortunate outcomes of the errors of yesterday and it is obvious that we are bent on going the same route. As we write, the government has paid about N2.8 trillion in subsidy for a sector it handed over to the private sector. A sector it sold at about N400 billion yet, it has spent multiples of that in taxpayers’ funds as payouts to those who bought the privatized entities,” he added.
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According to him, the sector has been handed over to banks due to the inability of the proxy investors to pay their loans to the banks. He said the managerial and technical competence as well as foreign direct investment has eluded the power sector as a result of this primitive economic policy.
“It is this same route that the government is proposing to follow again. The consequences of what the government wants to do especially at a time when Nigeria is today leading other countries as headquarters of nations suffering from power poverty will worsen the predicament of the nation’s power sector.
“Its attendant macroeconomic implications for our nations are huge and will worsen the already bad socioeconomic situation in our nation,” he said.
Stating that Nigeria’s economy would be worse in the next 10 years if a conscious power policy devoid of undue influence by neoliberal economic apologists is not designed, Ajaero added: “We need to wean not only our power sector but our entire economy from the apron strings of the forces of capitalism and its philosophical foundations if we are to make real progress as a nation.
“It is important that we learn from the mistakes of the past so that its errors are not repeated and the same consequences befall our nation again. If care is not taken, this may be another hope betrayed.”
