Nigeria Labour Congresss, says Nigerians are paying heavily for megawatts of darkness, despite the privatization of the nation’s power sector by the Federal Government.
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, President of NLC, who stated this on Monday at the maiden edition of Nigeria Employers Summit 2022 organised by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association(NECA) in Abuja,described the privatization of the Nigeria’s power sector as a complete failure and in near comatose state currently.
Wabba, who was represented by the Deputy President of NLC, Najeem Usman Yasin, said that there cannot be any meaningful development in the country unless the national infrastructural gaps are addressed.
He added: “The recent slump in the national electricity supply which is as a result of constant failure of our electricity grids indicates that Nigeria still has a long way to go in making power supply available to the citizenry.The organised private sector has concluded that the state of the public electricity supply as of today, as evident that most productive and residential areas in Nigeria no longer enjoy up to six hours of electricity supply.
“This has confirmed that the recent privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector is a complete failure.Nigerians still pay heavily for megawatts of darkness.Government has tried provision of palliatives and bail-out to the so-called private sector investors in the power sector, but all to no avail.”
He called for the reversal of the privatisation of power sector and the return of power sector assets to Nigerians.
He further decried a situation where Nigeria is losing businesses to the neighbouring African countries due to epileptic power supply in the country.
He added that for the organised private sector to contribute significantly in wealth generation, job creation, fostering of sustainable national development that it has become imperative for government to create enabling environment for private sector.
In his welcome address, Mr. Taiwo Adeniyi, President and Chairman of Council, NECA, explained that the summit would focus on promoting enterprise development as a major source of national growth, adding that efforts had been made in the past to create a strong platform to champion the enthronement of the private sector as engine of growth and national development.
He said the business environment has remained challenging in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic which was further exacerbated by multiple shocks from the Russia–Ukraine war, galloping inflation and massive job losses.
He identified factors such as policy inconsistencies, overbearing regulatory framework, multiple taxation, inadequate infrastructure and insecurity as some of the myriads of challenges confronting private sector operators.