Having gotten wind of the plans by the Federal Government to allocate N8 billion in the 2025 federal budget to sensitize Nigerians on the need to pay electricity bills, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has described such intention as “absurd.”
According to reports, the sensitization attempts to address the issues of power theft, bad payment habits, and the safeguarding of national power assets.
This was revealed in a statement signed by the union’s president, Comrade Joe Ajaero, on Tuesday.
The Federal Ministry of Power requested an N8 billion budget for 2025 to educate Nigerians about the significance of paying their electricity bills on time.
Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, disclosed the project during his budget defence in the National Assembly on Monday, stating that it aims to solve the concerns of power theft, bad payment habits, and the safety of national power assets.
Adelabu noted that the campaign would use a variety of media platforms, including social, digital, and print, to successfully reach Nigeria’s diverse population of over 200 million.
The minister underlined the necessity for a broad reorientation of the country’s power sector.
He emphasized that many Nigerians still need to grasp that electricity is not a free resource and that the sector’s infrastructure and assets must be protected to ensure a consistent power supply across the country.
In response, Ajaero called the ministry’s proposal “absurd” and urged authorities in the Power Ministry and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to revive the industry and save it from ultimate collapse.
The statement, titled ‘Before The Collapse Of The Power Sector: N8 Billion Budget For Electricity Bill Sensitisation And Matters Arising,’ highlighted gross corruption in the power sector and leaders’ inability to find long-term solutions to power challenges despite massive investments in the sector.
“The power sector in Nigeria is at the brink of collapse as the helmsmen have repeatedly shown gross incompetence. It is a sector where the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), despite the enormous power invested in it by the Electricity Act of 2023, has continuously demonstrated incapacity to regulate or outrightly refused to discharge its responsibilities to electricity consumers in Nigeria while the minister in charge is enamoured with seeking about N8 billion (Eight Billion Naira) to teach Nigerians how to pay electricity bills.
“It is therefore not surprising that power grid collapse is now a constant, as it has continued to succumb to greed and crass incompetence.
“Whereas the minister seeks N8 billion (Eight Billion Naira) to educate us, contractors in the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) who help in delivering capacity are owed over N200 billion (Two Hundred Billion Naira).”
Ajaero talked about the NLC’s various interventions in the power sector, adding that the ministry is not being run by competent hands.
“If not for the intervention of the unions in the sector in December 2024, the procurement committee would have added to this burden by sitting down to award more contracts.
“We are truly surprised at where the priorities of the leadership of the sector lie.
“If the Ministry of Power is manned by competent officials, the now embarrassing constant grid collapse would have been averted instead of the worrying statement by the minister that this will continue as if this has always been the norm.
“We believe that this is a clear admission of incapacity and failure by the ministry, and we wonder why they would not do the honourable thing by resigning.
“It has to be noted that the number of times the national grid has collapsed under these helmsmen is more than all the previous leaders in the history of our nation combined. Rather than the garrulous remarks, Nigerians expect more seriousness in handling their affairs.
“It is unimaginable that NERC colluded with deafening silence with the Board of one of the DISCOs to sack its Managing Director for exposing the unethical practices in the DISCO.
“Whistleblowing, as far as NERC is concerned, has become an offence, so instead of an organisation that is supposed to reward and protect a whistleblower, it rather conniving to punish and sack the official.
“This is an organisation that is saddled with ensuring transparency and efficient running of the electricity sector but chose the contrary.
“NERC is therefore telling Nigerians that it is not prepared to discharge its mandate and has thus failed woefully, which explains the shambles in the sector.
“It is on this basis that we express our profound disappointment and outrage at the absurd quest for allocation of about N8 billion in the 2025 federal budget for the so-called “sensitisation of Nigerians on the need to pay electricity bills,” as disclosed by the Honourable Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, during his recent budget defence in the National Assembly.
It called on the management of the Power Ministry and NERC to reinvigorate the sector and save it from total collapse.
“Our position on this is clear: we will not stand idly by while public funds are wasted in the name of governance. This is another glaring reminder of why Nigeria remains in its current state of economic stagnation and why incompetence continues to thrive unchecked.
“NLC warned that failure to address this issue will further erode public confidence in government institutions and exacerbate the already dire socio-economic conditions facing millions of Nigerians.
“We will continue to monitor developments in this regard and will not hesitate to mobilise against any attempt to use the budget process as a vehicle for waste.”
