From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), at the early hours of today shut down the National Grid, so throwing the nation into darkness.
In a statement, General Manager, Public Affairs, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ndidi Mbah said the shutdown occurred at 2.19am.
“About 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the labour union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.
“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am,” she said.
According to her, at about 3.2 3am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation.
“The situation is such that the labour union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilise the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide” the GM, said
Recall that the NLC and TUC went on strike over minimum wage implementation.
Initially, the labour unions had proposed N615,500 as the minimum wage, citing the high cost of living.
However, the federal government rejected the N615,500 proposal and offered N48,000.
On May 15, the NLC and TUC rejected the N48,000 minimum wage offered by the government.
On May 21, the federal government increased the proposed minimum wage to N54,000, which the labour again rejected and described as “unacceptable”.
Again, the federal government proposed N60,000, and it was rejected.
Labour unions later handed the Federal Government a May 31 deadline for the implementation of a new minimum wage. On May 31, the workers’ organs in the country declared a nationwide strike beginning from Monday, June 3, 2024 over the government committee’s inability to agree on a new minimum wage and reversal of electricity tariff hike.
Again, recall that NLC embarked on strike on May 1988 under the military president of Ibrahim Babangida Regime.
The union opposed the Structural Adjustment Programme of that administration.
In July 1994 during Sani Abacha Regime, it agitated for the restoration of democracy. Also in January 2004 when Olusegun Obasanjo was on saddle the union also contested the Reintroduction of fuel tax.