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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the reported N6 trillion demand by power generation companies as “a clandestine scheme” designed to siphon public funds under the guise of sectoral intervention.
In a statement issued on Thursday titled “The Clandestine N6 Trillion Naira Demand is a Heist”, the union accused the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) of attempting to justify what it called an unjustifiable bailout, insisting that the privatisation of the power sector has failed to deliver improved generation capacity or service reliability.
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The labour union rejected claims by the generation companies that it lacks the competence to interrogate developments in the electricity market.
It argued that its affiliates, including workers directly employed across generation plants, possess first-hand knowledge of the sector’s operational realities.
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According to the NLC, the core contradiction remains unresolved: power assets reportedly acquired for about N400 billion are now at the centre of demands running into trillions of naira, despite what it described as stagnant output since privatisation.
At the heart of the dispute is the federal government’s reported contemplation of a N3 trillion intervention for GENCOs. The NLC questioned the economic logic of injecting fresh public funds into privately held companies that, in its view, have not demonstrated measurable improvement in megawatt generation or infrastructure expansion.
The union further demanded full disclosure of the beneficial owners of the generation companies, as well as audited performance data since the takeover.
“This is not economics; this is plunder. They call it business, but we call it a heist,” NLC President Joe Ajaero said, insisting that electricity remains a social service that should not be subjected to what he termed speculative profiteering at public expense.
Read the full statement below:
THE CLANDESTINE N6 TRILLION NAIRA DEMAND IS A HEIST
Our attention has been drawn to a press release issued by the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) on February 17, 2026. In that statement, the APGC, in a fit of grandstanding, accused the Nigeria Labour Congress of lacking the competence to understand the power sector and attempted to justify what is clearly a brazen move to loot the public treasury.
We reject entirely their self-serving narrative and its misleading characterization of our patriotic demands.
First, let us state unequivocally; the NLC stands by every word of our initial press statement. The privatisation of the power sector was, and remains, a grand deception and a well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people. The APGC’s whining about “victimisation” cannot mask the stench of failure that has enveloped the sector since they took over.
APGC and Co need to explain to Nigerians why they bought the entire Power assets for around N400 billion, but GENCOs alone are demanding N6 trillion as APGC admitted not even the N3 trillion Federal Government wanted to pay! The APGC’s press statement conveniently avoids the most scandalous contradiction at the heart of this debate. The APGC speaks of outstanding payments, but let us talk about the grotesque mathematics of plunder.
The entire power sector assets were sold for about Four Hundred Billion Naira (N400 billion). Yet, we are now told that the Federal Government is contemplating a bailout of Three Trillion Naira (N3 trillion) for the very same GENCOs who have failed to generate additional megawatt above pre-privatisation installed capacity.
We ask the Nigerian people; can a man sell his house for 400b and then turn around to pay the buyer 3 trillion because the buyer mismanaged the property? This is not economics; this is a plunder. This is a clandestine scheme to transfer an additional three trillion Naira of public wealth; money belonging to workers, pensioners, and the masses; into the pockets of a handful of speculators. They call it business, but we call it HEIST.
We dare the APGC to deny that from the very beginning, the sellers of these assets are in bed with the buyers. This incestuous relationship was an open secret, and this latest attempt at a bailout is the final stage of that heist. It is a continuation of the primitive accumulation of capital by a comprador elite who have cornered the levers of power to enrich themselves at the expense of over 200 million Nigerians.
We need to educate the palpable ignorance of the APGC though we think they are deeply incompetent and cannot pretend to be representing GENCOS, so that they will avoid this shocking display of ignorance. Suggesting that NLC lacks the capacity to understand the Power sector is shamelessly audacious and bereft of a good understanding of the sector’s dynamics.
Let us educate them. The NLC is not a visitor to this sector. Our members are the workers in the plants. Our affiliate, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), is on the ground every day. The leadership of the NLC played active and leading roles in the struggle against this flawed privatisation exercise two decades ago. The President of NLC sits on the Board of the International Energy Agency and a Ph.D Scholar in Energy Law. We warned that this; failure; would be the outcome. Our warnings were ignored by those who were compensated. Consequently, do not lecture us on dynamics when you have failed to meet a single objective of the privatisation exercise.
Regarding our use of the phrase “settle the boys”; the APGC’s performative outrage is disingenuous. “Boys” is an everyday phrase. Our usage remains prescient given the current political drama in Nigeria. It is now clear that in Nigeria, “the boys” are those who have taken centre stage, cornering public resources and providing a theatre as governance while the people suffer. We maintain that the public coffers must not be used to settle the “boys.”
For the avoidance of doubt, and in the interest of transparency, the NLC dares the APGC to publish a full and comprehensive list of the beneficial owners of all GENCOs and other power assets. Let Nigerians see the faces of those demanding this N6 trillion. Though it is public knowledge that power flows to those connected to the corridors of power, we demand that you make it official.
Furthermore, since you claim we do not understand the sector, answer these simple questions:
1. Since you took over these assets, what is the highest Megawatt (MW) of electricity you have generated and delivered to the national grid?
2. Is it not a fact that generation has remained averagely stagnant at between 4,000 and 5,000 MW—the exact same level before privatisation?
3. Which objective of the privatisation exercise have you met? Was it not to improve generation, transmission, and distribution?
The privatisation sales pitch was a litany of lies sold to a desperate nation. You promised to unleash technical capacity, Foreign Direct Investment, and to finally generate the power that would illuminate Nigeria. You have done none of these. You have delivered darkness and debt. So, we ask again: Where is this vaunted technical expertise you were supposed to bring? Point to a single innovation, a single efficiency you have introduced. Where is the foreign direct investment you swore to inject? You have steadily carted away billions in tariff hikes, presiding over decay while lining your pockets. This is not business; this is the last act of a continuing heist; a cash out at the expense of Nigerians. This is not patriotic; it is parasitic.
For companies that treat our nation’s laws with such contempt, the word “patriotism” is a mockery on your lips. You have flagrantly disregarded Nigeria’s labour laws with the impunity of those who believe they are above the state. You treat the Nigerian workers; the very men and women who keep your turbines spinning; not as employees, but as subjects in a fiefdom, denying them their statutory rights and basic human dignity. And your greed does not stop there. You have even impounded housing units and other pre-privatisation assets that were solemnly the property of the workers. You have not only failed Nigerians; you are also Lawbreakers.
Making such atrocious demands on Government is unfounded. The GENCOs should have known that the merger of the old Niger Dam Authority and the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was to ensure that the market pays for the cost of Generation. You cannot therefore ask government to pay in a privatized era instead of recovering whatsoever costs from the market. Not even after the increase of tariff by over 500% since you took over.
NLC would want the GENCOs to realize that it amounts to wage theft and robbery to deny workers and their unions check-off dues amounting to millions since taking over and then refusing to pay dividend on the 10% allotted to workers by the Privatisation Act.
We ask, how much has the GENCOs paid to the federal government that is supposed to own about 40% equity in their companies as dividend since the last 10yrs of operation? We believe not a single kobo. One is therefore aghast at what moral grounds the GENCOs would be standing to make such atrocious demand of N6 trillion if not because it believes that it is above the state.
It is important that we ask the GENCOs to make public how much Nigerians were paying as electricity tariff before they captured assets of the Power sector and how much Nigerians are paying now? They should tell Nigerians whether tariff has not gone up by over 500% since with stagnant generation and sometimes zero generation. Is it not immoral to continue extorting this huge hike in tariffs from Nigerians yet, APGC has the nerves to request for N6trn? This is utterly brazen!
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It is an indictment of this failed model that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, frustrated by the paralysis you have caused, now reportedly seeks to remove the seat of power from the national grid and generate its own electricity.
We ask the APGC: If the President, with all the resources of the state, is forced to generate his own power, does that not prove our point? Has the nation not been taken hostage by a cartel?
NLC remains insistent that the state must return as the primary driver of the power sector. Electricity is a social service, not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest bidder. We reject the impudent demand for N6 trillion and this planned N3 trillion bailout. We reject the failed privatisation model.
The Nigerian people cannot and will not continue to pay for darkness.
Comrade Joe Ajaero
President
