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•We deserve pity not insults –Companies
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has condemned generation companies (GENCOs) over their demand for a N6 trillion bailout, saying that it is a brazen attempt to loot the public treasury and a continuation of the failed privatisation of the power sector.
The NLC in a statement by its President, Joe Ajaero, yesterday, said the entire power sector was privatised for about N400 billion, yet GENCOs are now demanding N6 trillion, with the Federal Government reportedly considering a N3 trillion intervention.
The labour union said electricity generation remains stagnant at 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts, while tariffs have increased by more than 500 percent. It described the situation as a cash out at the expense of Nigerians.
The Congress also demanded full transparency from the GENCOs, urging them to disclose the beneficial owners of all power assets. The NLC further accused the companies of abusing workers’ rights by failing to pay dues, dividends or honour check-off contributions.
The statement read in parts: “The Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) and Co need to explain to Nigerians why they bought the entire Power assets for around N400 billion, but GENCOs alone are demanding N6 trillion as APGC admitted not even the N3 trillion Federal Government wanted to pay. The APGC’s press statement conveniently avoids the most scandalous contradiction at the heart of this debate.
“The APGC speaks of outstanding payments, but let us talk about the grotesque mathematics of plunder. The entire power sector assets were sold for about N400 billion. Yet, we are now told that the Federal Government is contemplating a bailout of N3 trillion for the very same GENCOs that have failed to generate additional megawatt above pre-privatisation installed capacity.
“We ask the Nigerian people: can a man sell his house for 400 billion and then turn around to pay the buyer N3 trillion because the buyer mismanaged the property? This is not economics; this is a plunder. This is a clandestine scheme to transfer an additional N3 trillion of public wealth; money belonging to workers, pensioners and the masses, into the pockets of a handful of speculators. They call it business, but we call it heist.
“Making such atrocious demands on the government is unfounded. The GENCOs should have known that the merger of the old Niger Dam Authority and the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was to ensure that the market pays for the cost of generation. You cannot, therefore, ask the government to pay in a privatised era instead of recovering whatsoever costs from the market. Not even after the increase of tariff by over 500 percent since you took over.
“The NLC would want the GENCOs to realise that it amounts to wage theft and robbery to deny workers and their unions check-off dues amounting to millions since taking over and then refusing to pay dividend on the 10 percent allotted to workers by the Privatisation Act
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“We ask, how much has the GENCOs paid to the Federal Government that is supposed to own about 40 percent equity in their companies as dividend since the last 10 years of operation? We believe not a single kobo. One is, therefore, aghast at what moral grounds the GENCOs would be standing to make such an atrocious demand of N6 trillion if not because it believes that it is above the state.
“It is important that we ask the GENCOs to make public how much Nigerians were paying as electricity tariff before they captured assets of the power sector and how much Nigerians are paying now? They should tell Nigerians whether tariff has not gone up by over 500 percent since with stagnant generation and sometimes zero generation. Is it not immoral to continue extorting this huge hike in tariffs from Nigerians yet, APGC has the nerves to request for N6 trillion? This is utterly brazen.
“It is an indictment of this failed model that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, frustrated by the paralysis you have caused, now reportedly seeks to remove the seat of power from the national grid and generate its own electricity. We ask the APGC: If the President, with all the resources of the state, is forced to generate his own power, does that not prove our point? Has the nation not been taken hostage by a cartel?”
The Congress further insisted that the state must return as the primary driver of the power sector, noting, “Electricity is a social service, not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest bidder. We reject the impudent demand for N6 trillion and this planned N3 trillion bailout. We reject the failed privatisation model.”
The NLC had in an earlier statement, kicked against the Federal Government’s proposed plan to pay between N2 trillion and N3 trillion to power generation companies (GENCOs) as subsidies, describing it as a clandestine move to “settle the boys” in the 2027 general elections.
The APGC had in reaction to this, defended the sector, insisting that GENCOs remain the most financially vulnerable players in Nigeria’s electricity market with over N6 trillion unpaid bills.
CEO of APGC, Joy Ogaji, dismissed the Congress’s claims as baseless and offensive to the professionals working tirelessly in the sector, stressing that the companies are entitled to roughly 60 percent of market receivables from invoiced energy bills.
She insisted that GenCos deserve pity and not castigation, ridicule and victimisation.
According to her, “Trying to smear their image with such baseless and unfounded allegations is not only unfair but misleading to the Nigerian populace.”
