Joe Ajaero, the Nigeria Labor Congress President has opposed the plan to unbundle the Transmission Company for Nigeria (TCN) for privatization.
The Punch reports that Ajaero maintains that the intended power sector policies would create the same mistakes past administrations made and it would create deeper consequences if power sector policies were not reversed by the Federal Government.
In a recent NLC statement, Ajaero wrote:
- “NLC believes that the President is making the same mistake previous administrations have made with the policy direction his Minister of power is trying to follow in seeking to unbundle TCN for privatization. It imperils the ability of the state to control, always regulate, and guarantee the safety of the nation’s grid system.”
- “The quest to ultimately hand over the transmission infrastructure would expose the nation to blackmails and weaken the ability of the sector to transmit and distribute power around the country. Privatizing it will create the same crisis prevailing within the Discos and Gencos and will impact the quality-of-service deliverance by the Power sector to Nigerians.”
He reminded the federal government that over 10 years ago, the NLC protested against the decision of the country to privatize power generation and distribution but the action yielded no fruit as the country went ahead to privatise power generation and distribution.
According to him, the power sector remains stagnant as no significant investment was made by those who bought the generating companies (GENCOs) and distribution companies (DISCOs) through proxies.
Recall that the Minister for Power, Adebayo Adelabu noted about three weeks ago during an interview with Arise News, that a lot of private sector stakeholders have not kept to the terms and conditions of the privatisation, and there is also poor technical capacity of many of the operators in the industry and there have been poor investments in improving the infrastructure for the power sector.
Ajaero also wrote:
- “What we are reaping today are the unfortunate outcomes of the errors of yesterday and it is obvious that we are bent on going the same route.
- “The government’s plans, especially given Nigeria’s current status as a power poverty leader, will worsen the nation’s power sector and have significant negative effects on the overall economy and socio-economic condition,”
Catchup
During a December 12 Ministerial Retreat with the theme: Integrated National Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan: Navigating and Aligning on the Path to Enhanced Electricity Reliability, Nairametrics reported that the country’s Minister for Power, Adebayo Adelabu said that the federal government is making plans to unbundle the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into the Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and the Independent System Operator (ISO) to advance the growth of electricity in Nigeria.
