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NLC Challenges Power Minister’s Claim of “Adequate Electricity” for 150 Million Nigerians
A statement released by the union’s President, Joe Ajaero, on Wednesday, the union said the minister’s statement was “outrageous”.
The union leader noted that the “Wild assertion is not only pretentious, but also a bad joke on a people daily confronted by grinding darkness, outrageous electricity tariffs, and a power sector manipulated for private profit at the expense of national progress”
“Perhaps, the Minister wants to perform Jesus’ miracle of feeding 5,000 persons with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.”
According to Ajaero, the minister’s claim was nothing but an attempt to insult the intelligence of Nigerians, given the power challenge the nation faces.
“To suggest that over 150 million Nigerians have access to reliable power in a country that struggles to generate a meagre and inconsistent 5,000 megawatts—far below the global benchmark of 1,000mw per one million people—is to insult the intelligence and lived realities of Nigerians.”
The NLC, which stated that Nigeria should be generating no less than 150,000mw to justify such a claim, noted that “even on its best day, the country’s electricity generation has never exceeded 5,500mw—and that figure remains unstable and unreliable”
“We want to ask, is Nigeria’s standard different from the world standard? Where are the power plants that make this level of supply possible? Where is the upgraded transmission infrastructure to support such output? Why are our homes still shrouded in darkness and our factories shutting down daily?”
The NLC counselled the Power Minister on standards for measuring performance, adding that the Minister’s claim “could be likened to a joke taken too far.
“The truth is that millions of Nigerians, from urban slums to rural communities, continue to live without access to electricity. The few who have access do so under constant threat of disconnection, blackouts, and financial exploitation through a complex pyramid of inflated tariffs and arbitrary billing”
The NLC traced the current electricity crisis in Nigeria to what it also described as a direct result of the grand betrayal that was the 2013 power sector’s privatisation.
Ajaero accused the federal government of handing over the nation’s critical infrastructure to cronies for just N400 billion, adding that “Over a decade later, there has been no improvement in service delivery. Yet, these same GenCos and DISCOS, which have failed the nation woefully, are to receive over N4 trillion in public subsidies with zero accountability.
“It is disheartening that after over 12 years of privatisation, the power sector has not experienced any significant capacity expansion. No substantial infrastructure renewal despite trillions spent. Unfortunately, and predictably too, there has been no sanction for incompetent DISCOS and GenCos as outlined in the privatisation agreement because the buyers seem to be the same as the sellers.
It claimed that rather than fix the rot in the power sector, the “government now plans to sell off the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)—the last publicly owned component of the power value chain. This move is not reform; it is economic ruse dressed in bureaucratic doublespeak”
“It is an attempt to swallow the remaining power asset by the ruling elite at the detriment of the suffering Nigerian masses. We are worried that the already hijacked entities in the name of privatisation have grossly underperformed, and you want to go the same route with the remaining one – the outcome, of course, will not be different.
The NLC, while also criticising the government over the recent electricity tariff hike, noted that the action masked under the so-called “Band A, B, and C” classification is nothing but a sophisticated scheme to legalise exploitation.
“While DISCOs have raked in over N700 billion from helpless consumers, power supply remains epileptic, erratic, and inaccessible to the majority. Millions of Nigerians are now forced to choose between food and electricity bills.
“It is apparent that those who preside over the helm of affairs have either lost their sense of humanity or do not entirely care about the consequences of their actions on the masses who are undergoing the most severe hardship in our history as a nation.
“Meanwhile, workers in the power sector, who continue to hold the crumbling system together, remain poorly paid and grossly undervalued, while top NERC officials and private sector profiteers enrich themselves in a festival of regulatory impunity. This is most unacceptable, and all patriots must speak up against this apparent insensitivity and grandstanding in the name of governance.
The NLC declared that what is currently going on is not a reform but an organised profiteering.
“Nigerians are tired of propaganda and statistical gymnastics. Cease from insulting the intelligence of the people with fabrications and false hope. Nigerians deserve more respect. If you generate, transmit and distribute more power, we will see it in our homes and factories, not on the pages of newspapers and on television.”
The union pledged not to stand idly by while Nigerians are exploited by economic elites
“We are prepared to deploy all democratic and lawful means to continue to expose and resist all grand deception targeted at the Nigerian masses. We will continue in our quest to restore equity and reclaim the power sector for the Nigerian people.
The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has announced Senator Ireti Heebah Kingibe as the party’s flag bearer for the Federal Capital Territory senatorial election ahead of the 2027 general polls.
Kingibe secured a landslide victory in the party’s primary election, polling 17,535 votes to defeat her sole challenger, Mubarak Tijjani, who garnered 806 votes.
Declaring the results at the ADC secretariat in Abuja, the chairman and returning officer for the senatorial and House of Representatives primaries, Abubakar Adamu, confirmed Kingibe as the winner of the exercise.
The primary election also produced candidates for the two House of Representatives seats in the FCT.
In the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency, Bala Iyah emerged victorious with 4,937 votes, defeating Yahaya Fatima Goya, who polled 2,015 votes, while Ma’aji Johnson Bello secured 1,546 votes. Ismaila Ishak Ozigi received 105 votes.
For the Abaji/Gwagwalada/Kwali/Kuje Federal Constituency, Alhassan Salihu clinched the party’s ticket with 9,016 votes, defeating Khalid A. Haruna, who polled 2,955 votes.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission monitored the conduct of the primaries.
Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State has expressed confidence that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will secure victory in the 2027 presidential election, stating that no opposition candidate, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, can prevent the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from retaining power.
Namadi made the remarks after casting his vote during the APC presidential primary election held at his polling unit in Kafin Hausa Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
The governor reiterated his commitment to delivering more than one million votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the next general election, saying the target was realistic given the widespread support the APC enjoys across Jigawa State.
He noted that the large turnout witnessed during the primary election demonstrated the confidence party members and residents have in both President Tinubu and the APC-led administration.
According to Namadi, the peaceful and transparent conduct of the exercise also reflected the President’s respect for democratic values and internal party democracy.
The governor further stated that the outcome of the APC primary election signalled what to expect in the 2027 polls, predicting an overwhelming victory for the ruling party nationwide.
Namadi described Jigawa as one of the APC’s strongest support bases, pointing out that the state ranks among those with the highest number of registered voters in the country.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 63-year-old Chinese woman for allegedly attempting to smuggle a large consignment of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, into Nigeria.
The suspect, described as Ting Hung Kiong who naturalised in Malaysia, was arrested on Sunday, May 17, 2026, upon arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, from Thailand via Dubai on an Emirates Airline flight.
This was contained in a statement made available to the column.ng on (today) Sunday by NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi.
According to the agency, NDLEA operatives attached to the Terminal 2 Arrival Hall intercepted her after she was found to have two large travel boxes containing 31.0 kilograms of the illicit substance.
“During an interview, the 63-year-old suspect who claims she works as a caregiver in Malaysia stated that her daughter sponsored her trip from Malaysia to Thailand and subsequently to Nigeria.
“She further disclosed that she spent two weeks in Thailand, before she was handed the illicit consignment at the Thailand airport to deliver in Nigeria,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA also announced the interception of another major drug shipment at the Lagos airport import shed.
“Following close monitoring of the consignment by NDLEA operatives since its arrival from India aboard an Emirates Cargo flight, the 29 large cartons containing One Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ten (1,825,710) tablets of Tapentadol 250mg, worth Two Billion, One Hundred and Ninety Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Two Thousand Naira (N2,190,852,000) were eventually handed over to the NDLEA by the Customs Service on Friday 22nd May 2026,” it said.
In another operation at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, NDLEA operatives on May 20 arrested a suspect, Onyeka Valentine Emeka, during inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sierra Leone via Addis Ababa.
The suspect, according to the agency, excreted 185.36 grams of cocaine while under observation.
Babafemi added that “at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 29-year-old building engineer, Babatunde Prosper Afekhide was on Wednesday 21st May arrested by NDLEA operatives while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Abuja via Addis Ababa to Milan Malpensa, Italy.
“A search conducted on his luggage led to the recovery of 10,280 pills of Tramaking 225mg; Tramadol 200mg and Tapentadol 250mg. The opioids were concealed using foil paper and hidden inside a carton, in a suitcase, obviously to evade detection.
“In yet another operation at a courier company in Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted 1,174 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) concealed in bicycle luggage carrier heading to Netherlands; 66 pills of tramadol 225mg hidden in soap container going to the United States and 18 tablets of tramadol 225mg concealed in body cream container heading to the United Kingdom,” the agency said.
In Edo State, operatives acting on intelligence raided Igwe community in Owan East Local Government Area, where 59 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 489kg and 9kg of cannabis seeds were recovered.
The agency also said a 30-year-old suspect, Isah Sani, was arrested with 196,000 pills of Exol-5 along the Zaria–Kano road in Kano State on May 20, while operatives at the Seme border in Badagry, Lagos, recovered 59kg of skunk from a warehouse in Mowo on May 19.
In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives on May 23 raided a warehouse in Ikole-Ekiti and recovered 1,116 kilograms of skunk, arresting a 54-year-old suspect, Ogundana Adebayo Julius, in connection with the seizure.
The agency also disclosed continued nationwide War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation activities in schools, worship centres and communities across several states.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers involved in the operations and charged them to sustain the agency’s drug supply reduction and sensitisation efforts.
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