NLC Demands Resignation Of Power Minister, Adelabu

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for the resignation of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, for alleged gross incompetence in managing the sector.

The National President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, decried that under Adelabu, the national grid has continued to fail, pushing Nigeria to darkness and worsening the country’s electricity crisis.

In a statement on Tuesday, Ajaero said the Power Ministry is manned by incompetent officials, resulting in constant grid collapse with no end in sight.

Naija News reported that the national grid collapsed at least 11 times in 2024, and the trend has also been recorded two times in 2025.

“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 enamored with seeking about ₦8 billion 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.

“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.

“This ludicrous proposal epitomizes the depth of profligacy, wastefulness, and corruption that has permeated governance in Nigeria,” it read.

The organized labour also demanded an account of the revenues gained from the privatization of the power sector years back.

NLC noted that the power sector remained active as a result of the commitment of the unions in the sector.

“The Minister should tell Nigerians how much dividend the federal government has received from the privatized entities since the last 12 years of privatization in lieu of its 40 percent ownership of the privatized entities.

“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 lay. 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,” it stated.

The union further accused the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of attacking whistleblowers who are committed to exposing corruption in the sector.

“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 offense. So, instead of an organization that is supposed to reward and protect a whistleblower, it rather connived to punish and sack the official,” it added.