From Magnus Eze, Enugu
President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero has slammed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for ill-advising Nigeria to remove electricity subsidy, blaming the institutions for the crisis in the nation’s power sector.
This is as electricity workers urged the Federal Government to encourage and harness the abundant renewable energy source in the country and stop the use of fossil fuel so as to improve power generation.
Speaking at the 7th Quadrennial/12th Delegates Conference of the national Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) in Enugu, Ajaero also blamed IMF and World Bank for ill-advising Nigeria to remove fuel subsidy as well as devalue its currency.
He bemoaned that the country is still running low in megawatts, declaring that no nation can develop without electricity. He further lamented that Nigeria still grappled with 4,000 megawatts of electricity despite the billions of naira pumped into the power sector over the years.
“Up till tomorrow, the IMF and the World Bank will continue to dictate to us. They are telling Nigeria to completely remove subsidy on electricity. What’s their interest? Why can’t they tell America to remove subsidy on wheat,” Ajaero queried.
National President of NUEE, Martin Uzoegwu, explained that when renewable energy source replaced fossil fuel, it would reduce climate change in Nigeria as the world is moving towards energy transition.
Uzoegwu also called on the government to consider a total review of the privatisation of the power sector, saying that the exercise was a huge failure that did not meet the expectation of Nigerians in terms of energy demands and tariff.
He said that the government should have regulated the energy sector but it looked the other way while investors throttled Nigerians.
Managing Director/CEO of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Sule Abdulaziz said: “The power sector holds a pivotal position in driving economic development, making forums like this essential for harnessing insight and crafting solutions.”