The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed strong opposition to the federal government’s plan to restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), saying it is a ploy to privatise the nation’s transmission infrastructure and hand it over to the cronies of the ruling elite.
In a statement issued yesterday, the labour centre said the plan, as announced by the minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, was fraught with danger and would jeopardise the power sector.
Recalled that Adelabu had on Tuesday, in Abuja disclosed plan by the federal government to unbundle TCN into two different entities to become the Independent System Operator, (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider, (TSP).
However, the development doesn’t go down well with the labour movement where NLC national president, Comrade Joe Ajaero in the statement said that the plan is a continuation of the failed privatisation exercise of the power sector, which has resulted in increased tariffs, poor service delivery, lack of investment, and huge subsidies paid by the government to the private investors.
NLC also accused the government of making the same mistake as previous administrations, instead of convening a genuine national stakeholders’ forum to review the privatisation exercise and address the challenges facing the power sector.
NLC further warned that privatising the TCN would expose the nation to blackmails and weaken the ability of the sector to transmit and distribute power across the country. It said the TCN is a strategic national asset that should be under the control and regulation of the state at all times.
NLC recalled that it protested against the privatisation of the power sector 10 years ago, predicting the negative consequences that have now manifested. It said the government should learn from the past and reverse its policy direction.
The statement reads in parts, “NLC believes that the President is making the same mistake previous administrations have made with the policy direction his Minister of power is trying to follow in seeking to unbundle TCN for privatisation.
We had thought that the President would have convened a genuine national stakeholders’ forum to critically review the Privatisation exercise in the sector which the government itself agrees has failed to attain any of its major objectives rather than seeking to embark on another exercise that would bring more crisis to the power sector”.
“Privatising it will create the same crisis prevailing within the DISCOs and GENCOs and will impact the quality-of-service deliverance by the Power sector to Nigerians.
The consequences of what the government wants to do especially to at a time when Nigeria is today leading other countries as headquarters of nations suffering from Power poverty will worsen the predicament of the nation’s Power sector.
Its attendant macro-economic implications for our nations are huge and will worsen the already bad socioeconomic situation in our nation”, Ajaero said.
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