The plan by the Federal Government to restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) could spell doom for the nation’s power sector, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, announced at the Ministerial Retreat on the Integrated National Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan in Abuja government was ready to unbundle the TCN and restructure it into two entities, namely the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider.
The Minisyer said the unbundling of the TCN would effectively tackle the challenges of dilapidated and ageing transmission infrastructure in the power sector, which is at the heart of the frequent grid collapse and inability to provide seamless transmission of electricity across the country.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the agency in charge of the privatisation of all public assets in the country, has already announced plans to sell off 40 percent of government equity Holdings in all the electricity distribution companies in the the country through the capital market in 2024.
But organised labour, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) faulted the plans, saying they were not in the interest of the growth of the power sector.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in a statement on Wednesday, said the plans portend grave danger to the Power sector and hold great fear and trepidation for major stakeholders within the Power sector.
“The plan to restructure the TCN, by allowing private investors involvement in the Transmission of electricity, will imperil the ability of the state to control, regulate and guarantee the safety of the nation’s electricity grid system at all times,” the NLC said.
The restructuring plan, the NLC pointed out, was an attempt to give the elites control of the company and frustrate the smooth and equitable distribution of electricity to all sections of the country.
“We want to quickly say that the idea behind the so-called plans to restructure is the same big grammar that was spoken before and during the failed privatisation exercise of the sector. They are the same stories that Nigerians have heard over the years which have largely yielded no significant results, except the increased suffering that the exercise became for the Nigerian people and the economy.
“The main motive behind the plans for the proposed restructuring of TCN and sale of government equity holding in the DISCos is none other than to prepare the TCN for eventual takeover by the cronies and lackeys of the ruling elites,” the NLC alleged.
The NLC President said President Bola Tinubu was definitely on course to repeat the same mistake the previous governments made with privatisation of the sector, which plunged the sector into the crisis it has made it difficult for it to recover from, despite various government interventions.
“The NLC believes the President is making the same mistake previous administrations made with the policy direction his Minister of power is trying to follow in seeking to unbundle the TCN for privatisation. We had thought the President would have convened a genuine national stakeholders’ forum to critically review the privatisation exercise in the power sector which the government itself has agreed 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.”
The disaster that would befall the nation’s power sector, the Labour leader argued, would be multidimensional, adding that the quest to unbundle the TCN would ultimately hand over the transmission infrastructure in the Nigerian Electricity Sector Industry to opportunists who would expose the nation to blackmail and weaken the ability of the sector to transmit and distribute power around the country.
Privatising TCN, he said, would create the same crisis prevailing within the DISCOs and GENCOs and would impact the quality-of-service deliverance by the Power sector to Nigerians.
The consequences of what the government wants to do, especially at a time when Nigeria was today leading other countries as the headquarters of nations suffering from Power poverty, would worsen the predicament of the nation’s Power sector.
The attendant macroeconomic implications of the crisis in the sector for the nations, the NLC President, said were huge and would worsen the already bad socio-economic situation in our nation.
“Nigeria’s economy would be worse in the next ten years if a conscious power policy, devoid of undue influence by neo-liberal economic apologists, is not designed. We need to wean not only our power sector, but our entire economy from the apron strings of the forces of capitalism and its philosophical foundations, if we are to make real progress as a nation.
“It is important that we learn from the mistakes of the past so that its errors are not repeated and the same consequences befall our nation again. If care is not taken, this may be another hope betrayed,” the NLC said.
