The nation has plunged into a fresh blackout due to the shutdown of the national grid by aggrieved members of the Labour Unions.
The national grid system dropped to zero megawatts on Monday following the complete disruption of power supply to all eleven electricity distribution companies, Channels Television reports.
In a statement, Transmission Company of Nigeria’s (TCN) General Manager of Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, confirmed that the nationwide blackout was caused by staff of TCN, under the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE), who shut down all power substations across the country at approximately 2:19 AM on Monday.
“At about 1:15 AM this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff who resisted were beaten while some were wounded. The Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero without any form of control or supervision,” the statement said.
“Other transmission substations shut down by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were also opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union,” Mbah added.
On the power generation side, Mbah explained that units from different generating stations were forced to shut down. “The Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency. The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 AM,” she said.
Channels Television reported that Labour Unions, after a four-hour meeting with the National Assembly leadership on Sunday evening in Abuja, confirmed the nationwide industrial action would start on Monday.
“For now, we don’t have the power to call off the strike. Tomorrow (Monday) morning, the strike will kick off as we take their (NASS) plea asking us to call off the strike to our various organs,” said Festus Osifo, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), after the meeting with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas.
The decision followed a deadlock between the Federal Government and the unions over a new national minimum wage and the reversal of the recent hike in electricity tariffs.
The unions had argued that the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 is inadequate for the average Nigerian worker, pointing out that not all governors are paying the current wage which expired in April 2024, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
On efforts to recover lost power generation, Mbah stated that at about 3:23 AM, TCN commenced grid recovery using the Shiroro substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation.
“The situation is such that the Labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide. We will continue to make efforts to recover and stabilise the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,” she said.
