‘We’re still in darkness’ — group asks FG to reverse power sector privatisation

Where is the Light Movement, a civil society group, has asked the federal government to reverse the power sector privatisation.

In 2013, the power sector was privatised as the electricity distribution and generation sub-sectors were sold to core investors, while the federal government held the transmission sub-sector.

Speaking with journalists, on Wednesday, at the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos state, Sina Odugbemi, convener of the group, said the privatisation process has not yielded any significant result.

The group claimed that electricity supply has not improved since the privatisation exercise, while also calling for a reversal of the present tariff to N21kWh with no further increment.

“Is it not a shame that after 60 years of independence, Nigeria is still battling with 2,000 to 4000 MW of electricity for a population of 200 million people? About 46% of Nigerians are not connected to the national electricity grid. Electricity is a fundamental right of all Nigerians that must be fought for, protected and guarded jealously,” Odugbemi said.

“We were told that selling the power sector to private companies will develop the power sectors and resolve the myriad of problems, more than 7 years after privatization, the problems have increased. To make matters worse, the government has spent about N2 trillion bailing out the GenCos and the DisCos since privatization and has spent over $20 billion since 2005 and we are still in darkness. Hence, privatization of the power sector has failed woefully and has made poor electricity supply become worse.

“The power companies who bought about 60% ownership of the power sector (Generating and Distribution) at a rock bottom price of about N500 billion for a sector that is worth over N6 trillion have failed to invest in the sector, they are only interested in stealing from consumers through unfair policies (outrageous estimated billing and high tariff).

“The only way forward is for government to reverse the privatization policy, bring back the power sector under exclusive public ownership. Nigerians have witnessed both, that is, public and private ownership, service under the so-called private investors is worse.

“The only way forward is for government to reverse the privatization policy, bring back the power sector under exclusive public ownership. Nigerians have witnessed both, that is, public and private ownership, service under the so-called private investors is worse.”