The Nigeria Labour Congress has strongly condemned the Federal Government’s reported plan to grant a ₦3 trillion bailout to privately owned electricity generation companies, calling it unjustified and economically unsound given the sector’s persistent failures since privatization.
NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero described the plan as a politically motivated attempt to enrich select investors, rather than a genuine effort to fix Nigeria’s chronic power shortages.
Speaking at the National Union of Electricity Employees’ annual conference of women and youth in Abuja, Ajaero criticized the bailout as a phantom subsidy and called for a thorough review of the sector amid repeated national grid collapses and stagnant generation capacity.
“The 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,” he said.
“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 emphasized that there is no justification for rewarding private firms that have failed to deliver meaningful improvements more than a decade after privatization. It noted that the entire power sector was sold for around ₦400 billion, yet now these companies are demanding trillions in support.
“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,” Ajaero added.
Labour also criticized the classification of electricity supply into A, B, and C groups, calling it “institutionalized extortion” that deepens inequality in access to a basic service.”
Responding to the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), the NLC dismissed their claims and accused them of trying to justify a blatant attempt to loot public funds.
“We reject entirely their self-serving narrative and its misleading characterization of our patriotic demands. The privatization of the power sector was, and remains, a grand deception and a well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people.
“The APGC’s whining about ‘victimization’ cannot mask the stench of failure that has enveloped the sector since they took over. They must explain why they bought the entire power assets for around N400 billion, yet are demanding N6 trillion, not even the N3 trillion proposed by the Federal Government.
“The APGC’s press statement conveniently avoids the most scandalous contradiction: while claiming outstanding payments, the mathematics of this plunder is grotesque,” the NLC added.
Amid warnings of wider industrial action if conditions do not improve, the NLC called for the reversal of privatization and stressed that electricity should be treated as a social service essential for national development, not a profit-making venture.
The dispute intensified as power generation companies claimed ₦6 trillion in unpaid invoices, which the NLC rejected as an attempt to siphon public resources without accountability.
