The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for an urgent National Stakeholders’ Summit on Nigeria’s electricity crisis, declaring that a decade after privatisation, the country remains trapped in “darkness, deception, and deepening energy poverty.”

The Congress said the recently enacted Electricity Act, which devolves power responsibilities to states, cannot succeed without a clear, worker-centred national roadmap to overhaul what it described as a failed, profit-driven regime.

In a press statement signed by its President, Joe Ajaero, and issued in Abuja on Sunday, 15 February 2026, the NLC delivered a sweeping indictment of the power sector, insisting that “a decade of privatisation has become a decade of darkness.”

The labour centre demanded what it termed a “People’s Power Roadmap” that would reverse the current model and restore electricity as a public good anchored on social justice and national development.

Speaking earlier at the National Union of Electricity Employees’ Annual Conference of Women and Youth in Abuja on 13 February, Ajaero lamented that more than ten years after the celebrated handover of public electricity assets to private investors, generation has remained “comically stagnant at between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts; the exact same level as the pre-privatisation era.”

According to him, “Instead of progress, we witness regression. Instead of light, we have darkness. The national grid collapses with the frequency of a faulty generator, sometimes plunging the entire nation into blackout. This is not the ‘turnaround’ we were promised; this is a well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people.”

The NLC maintained that the privatisation of the power sector was “a grand deception,” describing the process as a fraudulent transfer of public wealth into the hands of speculators who lacked the technical capacity and financial muscle to manage critical national infrastructure.

“The so-called investors did not buy these companies with their own money. No foreign exchange was brought in, though the companies were touted to have come from outside our shores. They borrowed heavily from Nigerian banks, draining domestic credit and contributing to the depreciation of our Naira. They acquired the DISCOs and GENCOs on a shoestring budget and now expect Nigerian workers to pay for their loans through outrageous electricity tariffs,” Ajaero stated.

The Congress further condemned the electricity band classification regime, describing it as an institutionalised form of segregation and economic exploitation.

According to Ajaero, the A, B, and C band categorisation is “a capitalist tool designed to further impoverish the masses,” insisting that it represents “a backdoor tariff hike that burdens citizens with cost-reflective billing without offering service-reflective delivery.”

He added that “Band A consumers pay through their noses but still receive epileptic power supply. This government is asking Nigerians to pay for darkness. We reject this segregation. Electricity is a right, not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest bidder while the poor are left in the dark.”

Beyond tariff structures, the NLC questioned the Federal Government’s alleged plan to pay between N2 trillion and N3 trillion to electricity generation companies as part of subsidy or debt settlement arrangements.

The Congress described the proposed payout as “another ruse” and a “clandestine move to ‘settle the boys’ as the 2027 elections approach.” It insisted that “there is no justification for such a massive bailout to private firms that have failed to deliver,” arguing that “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.”

The labour centre dismissed claims of electricity subsidy as a “phantom,” arguing that ordinary Nigerians continue to bear the brunt of high tariffs without commensurate improvement in supply. “When power is not available, it cannot be affordable,” the statement stressed, underscoring what it described as the contradiction at the heart of the current reform narrative.

While acknowledging the new Electricity Act and its decentralisation provisions, the NLC warned that devolution alone cannot resolve entrenched structural failures.

“Decentralisation is not a magic wand,” Ajaero cautioned, adding that without a coherent national framework prioritising public investment, affordability, and accountability, “the bottlenecks will persist.”

The Congress therefore demanded a National Stakeholders’ Summit “not another talk shop, but a genuine convergence of workers led by their unions, manufacturers, and genuine experts,” tasked with drafting a comprehensive roadmap that prioritises affordable and stable electricity for all Nigerians. It insisted that tariffs must be service-reflective rather than “cost-reflective extortion,” and called for renewed public investment in generation and transmission infrastructure.

Insisting that electricity cannot be treated as a luxury commodity reserved for those who can afford premium tariffs, the NLC declared that “electricity is not a luxury for the rich; it is a social service essential for national development.” It argued that only the State possesses the capacity to undertake the huge capital investments and endure the long gestation periods required for sustainable power sector transformation. “The private sector has failed. It is time to take back the power for the people,” Ajaero said.

The NLC affirmed that it stands ready to mobilise workers and citizens against what it termed further exploitation in the name of reform. “The Nigerian people cannot continue to pay for darkness,” the statement concluded, reiterating its demand that “the power sector must be returned to the people.” (Nigerian Tribune)

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