DISCOs deliver darkness, extort Nigeria, says NLC

Labour ready for mass rally against DISCOs

By Omolade Adegbuyi

The Nigerian Labour Congress, (NLC) is ready to mobilise workers against electricity distribution companies of Nigeria, the President Joe Ajaero of the central labour union has said. The NLC said it would embark on a nationwide shutdown to press home the demand for better services.
The NLC said DISCOs continue to deliver “darkness, exploitation and economic pain” to citizens.
The Congress said the categorisation of endusers as BAND A, B, and C is a form of institutionalised extortion.
Ajaero spoke at the National Union of Electricity Employees Annual Conference of Women and Youth in Abuja at the weekend.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero said the DISCOs were being issued “final warning” promising that organised labour would lead the protest by mobilising already charged Nigerians who have been exploited for too long by profit seeking but incompetent DISCOs.
Ajaero said ‘“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 Central Labour Union regretted that after more than 10 years that the companies came on board, the have not been able to provide beyond 4000 to 5000 watts. He said electricity generation remains stagnant at between 4,000 and 5,000 megawatts which was the same level before the privatisation when Nigerians paid even far less compared with what they pay today.
He said it was time the Nigerian authorities reviewed the operations of electricity providers. He said “We once again sound the alarm on the deplorable state of the nation’s electricity sector. We declare that the failed privatisation experiment has plunged Nigerian workers, women, youth, and industries into deeper energy poverty as the national grid continues to collapse while DisCos persistently reject loads from the Transmission Company.
NLC said it once again maintains that the power sector privatisation was a grand deception. The exercise was a fraudulent transfer of public wealth into the hands of a few speculators who lack both the technical expertise and the financial backbone to manage the nation’s electricity assets.
Ajaero said “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.”
NLC said the band classification of A, B, C was an exploitative intrigue designed to further impoverish the masses. He said the idea was to introduce backdoor tariff hike that exploits the citizens with cost-reflective billing without offering service-reflective delivery.
The NLC President said “Banding remains the institutionalisation of extortion of Nigerians by the rich. Band A consumers pay through their noses but still receive an 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.
He said claims of electricity subsidy claim remains a phantom, as does the plan to use three trillion naira to bail out operators.
“This is another ruse and goes nowhere. We question the rationale behind the Federal Government’s alleged plan to pay about three trillion naira to the GenCos. We describe it as a clandestine move to ‘settle the boys’ as the 2027 elections approach.
The NLC insists that there is no justification for such a massive bailout to private firms that have failed to deliver. 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 NLC president stated.
He added that NLC “insists that the state must return the power sector to a social service if we wish to make progress as a nation. Global examples show that no nation has successfully run its electricity sector purely as a profit-driven enterprise without inflicting hardship on its citizens. We call for the immediate return of the State as the primary driver of the power sector.”