BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
T he National Union of Electricity Employees has accused some top government officials of secretly bidding and buying assets in Nigeria’s electric power sector under proxy names.
The union argued that the alleged secret illegal dealings in the power sector have been partly responsible for the challenges the nation’s grid system has been battling.
For NUEE, should the practice be allowed to continue unchecked, the country would continue to experience electricity problems while Nigerians would continue to “pay for darkness.”
Some leaders of the union made this allegation while speaking in Osogbo recently. They faulted plans by the Federal Government to unbundle the power sector.
The Federal Government had through the Bureau of Public Enterprises announced its plans to sell off 40 per cent shares of the government in electricity distribution companies in the capital market in 2024.
Similarly, the government also noted that it was unbundling the Transmission Company of Nigeria in line with the Electricity Act.
But, the Acting Secretary of NUEE, Dominic Iwobike, said there has not been improvement in the power sector since the government privatised the electricity distribution company, saying the proposed reforms would frustrate the sector more.
He said politicians in government deceive Nigerians with privatisation but end up buying assets in the power sector secretly with public funds.
“There has never been improvement in the power sector for over 10 years ago since the privatization of the distribution companies (Discos); they have not added an extra one watt to the sector, rather Nigerians are paying for darkness. Why are you turning the Transmission Company of Nigeria into a private card?
“The sellers are the buyers, the same people are the government, the same people are buying the assets, using government money to buy our Nigerian assets.
They deceived us and said that privatization brings efficiency but right now, you and I know there is nothing like efficiency. Rather, they are milking us, Nigerians.
“Nigeria is currently suffering from power poverty. World Bank’s information says that one million people to one thousand megawatts, and we have over 250 million Nigerians, struggling with 4000 megawatts, you can see it is inadequate.
“The generating sector has been privatized into six companies and they have been given licence to generate since 2012 but none of them has generated anything,” he said.
Iwobike stressed that, “Government does not have the political will to do the right thing, like I said, the sellers are the buyers. The TCN generates its own revenue, so why are they trying to privatize it? They should allow TCN to run.
“What the government should be thinking of is to strengthen the generation network and the distribution capacity of the generation companies. There is no country in the world that allows the private sector to run the transmission company because you are handing over the security of a country to somebody. Privatization has failed in this country.”
“When we met the Minister of Power, he was telling us that he is going to resume the process of transmission, we accused him of the rumour of selling TCN but he said no, not under his watch. We are surprised at the turn of events now,” he stated.
Also speaking, the South-West Vice President of the union, Sadiq Adewale, said there was a crisis when the government privatised the generation and distribution companies, saying generation and distribution were the challenges in the sector and not the transmission.
