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NLC Demands Power Sector Audit, Rejects Bailouts As Another Grid Failure Plunges Nigeria into Darkness
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday demanded a comprehensive public audit of the country’s power sector infrastructure and a fundamental review of the privatisation model following yet another collapse of the national grid that left much of the country in darkness.
Reacting to the system disturbance, NLC President Joe Ajaero accused the federal government of wasting public resources on failed private entities, insisting that the billions earmarked for bailouts should instead fund a public-led initiative to expand generation and overhaul transmission infrastructure.
“Since the government has N4 trillion to invest in the sector, we suggest that the funds must be redirected towards a public-led initiative to build new generation capacity and revitalise the transmission infrastructure instead of handing it over to the Gencos and Discos,” Ajaero said.
He stressed: “This is not a plea; it is a declaration of intent. The light must come on, by any means necessary. Once again, we call for a comprehensive public audit of the entire power sector. The working class and the suffering masses of Nigeria will no longer tolerate this darkness.”
Ajaero said the persistent collapse of the grid was evidence of government’s “deliberate failure” to reform the sector, warning that labour and citizens would no longer accept excuses for what he described as a man-made crisis.
Earlier, the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) confirmed the national grid suffered a collapse at about 11:20 am on Wednesday, triggered by the tripping of a generation company, which cascaded to other Gencos and cut supply nationwide.
At the peak of the outage, THISDAY learnt that only 20MW was available to Ibadan Disco, out of 12 distributors across the country. By 3:05 pm, supply had risen to 495MW, and by 8:21 pm, a total of 1,583MW had been restored, with Abuja Disco receiving 243MW, Ikeja 239MW, and Eko 204MW.
In a statement, NISO said: “Substantial restoration has been achieved across the country. A full investigation into the immediate and remote causes is underway, and the outcome will determine remedial actions to forestall future occurrences.”
The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and other Discos confirmed the outage across their franchise areas on social media.
AEDC said: “The outage was due to a loss of supply from the national grid at 11:23 am. Our teams are working with TCN to restore power.”
Kano Disco also reported a “widespread power outage affecting our entire network”, adding that while restoration had begun, customers should remain vigilant against vandals targeting power assets.
Similarly, Ikeja Electric said all its feeders went off at 11:20 am, while Kano Disco appealed for patience and community protection of electricity infrastructure.
Emmanuel Addeh, Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Peter Uzoho