Blackout looms across Nigeria as electricity workers have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike to halt the proposed sale of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) have vowed to embark on the suspended nationwide protest if the government continues with the plan to sell TCN.
The union, therefore, appealed to the National Assembly and Nigerians to resist the push for the sale of TCN which will further leave the nation with regrets and ‘had I known.’
The National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria (NUEE) General Secretary, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who told newsmen, wondered why the government is still bent on selling off TCN when the transmission and distribution have after eight years of privatization failed to yield expected turnaround of the power sector
“Almost eight years after the privatization of the power sector, there has not been any visible improvement in terms of power supply, expansion or investments by the new owners of the DisCos and GenCos.
”In the sector’s performance chain today, the Transmission network with a wheeling capacity of 8,000MW has been strengthened to comfortably wheel out Power Generated by the Generation Companies whose average operational generation output is far below the total installed generation capacity (they are not generating full capacities). Nigerians have had to grapple with darkness as the DisCos reject energy wheeled to them by Transmission Company of Nigeria,” Ajaero said.