The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has strongly criticised what it described as an outrageous claim by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who reportedly stated that 150 million Nigerians now enjoy “adequate electricity” from a supply of 5,500 megawatts.
In a statement released on Wednesday, NLC President Joe Ajaero dismissed the minister’s assertion as pretentious and a cruel joke on citizens who are daily faced with power outages, soaring electricity tariffs, and a sector plagued by private interests.
Ajaero argued that suggesting 150 million Nigerians have access to stable power in a country that struggles to produce an inconsistent 5,000 megawatts—far below the international standard of 1,000 megawatts per one million people—is an affront to both logic and the everyday experience of Nigerians.
He noted that by global standards, Nigeria should be generating at least 150,000 megawatts to meet such a claim. Yet, even at peak performance, the country’s output has never surpassed 5,500mw, a figure that remains both unreliable and inadequate.
NLC went on to say:
“We want to ask, is Nigeria’s standard different from the world standard? Where are the power plants that make this level of supply possible? Where is the upgraded transmission infrastructure to support such output?
“Why are our homes still shrouded in darkness and our factories shutting down daily? This is not how performance is measured, but could be likened to a joke carried too far. The truth is that millions of Nigerians, from urban slums to rural communities, continue to live without access to electricity.
“The few who have access do so under constant threat of disconnection, blackouts, and financial exploitation through a complex pyramid of inflated tariffs.
“The crisis we face today is the direct result of the grand betrayal that was the 2013 power sector privatisation—an exercise that handed over the nation’s critical infrastructure to cronies for just N400 billion. Over a decade later, there has been no improvement in service delivery. Yet, these same GenCos and DISCOs, which have failed the nation woefully, are to receive over N4 trillion in public subsidies with zero accountability,” NLC added.
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cc: Daily Post Ng
