Nigeria's electricity crisis has a new flashpoint. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) fired a direct shot at the Federal Government on Sunday, March 22, 2026, demanding that President Tinubu's administration immediately merge the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Power into one unified Ministry of Energy.
NLC President Comrade Joe Ajaero made the demand in a statement issued in Abuja. He warned that without this structural change, Nigeria's power sector will never recover. Millions of workers, manufacturers, and ordinary citizens will keep paying for darkness.
Key Facts at a Glance
- NLC demands immediate merger of Power and Petroleum Ministries into a single Energy Ministry
- NLC rejects the Federal Government's proposed ₦6 trillion bailout for power generation companies (GenCos)
- NLC President Joe Ajaero signed the statement from Abuja on Sunday, March 22, 2026
- NLC calls the 2013 power sector privatisation a "failed experiment"
- NLC demands a National Stakeholders' Summit to draft a "People's Power Roadmap"
- NLC wants electricity reclassified as a social service, not a profit commodity
Why the NLC Says Nigeria's Energy Ministries Must Merge Now
The NLC argues that the root cause of Nigeria's electricity crisis is not money. It is structure. According to Ajaero, the Ministries of Power and Petroleum have spent years operating in isolation from each other, creating a system where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.
The core problem is gas. Nigeria's thermal power plants, which generate the bulk of the country's electricity, run on gas. But gas is controlled by the petroleum sector. And the petroleum sector, the NLC argues, treats gas as an export commodity to earn foreign exchange, rather than as the critical feedstock that keeps Nigeria's lights on.
"The nation's thermal power generation, which accounts for the bulk of our grid capacity, is held hostage by gas supply gaps. This gas is controlled by an industry, the Petroleum sector, that operates like a rent-seeking enclave with no accountability to the people's need for electricity." -- NLC President Joe Ajaero, Statement from Abuja, March 22, 2026
When the grid collapses, both ministries point fingers at each other. The Power Minister blames the Petroleum Minister for gas shortfalls. The Petroleum Minister blames market forces and global volatility. Nigerians get left in darkness while officials trade blame.
NLC Rejects the N6 Trillion GenCo Bailout as a Symptom, Not a Cure
The merger demand came alongside a blunt rejection of the Federal Government's proposed ₦6 trillion bailout for power generation companies. The NLC is clear: this bailout does not fix the problem. It pays for the symptoms of a broken system.
Ajaero pointed to a long history of financial interventions in Nigeria's power sector that have produced no meaningful improvement for consumers. Tariffs keep rising. Outages continue. And private investors collect billions while delivering nothing close to reliable electricity.
"Repeated financial interventions have not translated into improved electricity supply for Nigerians. We cannot continue to deploy public funds to sustain a fundamentally flawed system, while ordinary citizens bear the burden of inefficiency through high tariffs and persistent outages." -- Joe Ajaero, NLC President
The NLC called the operators of electricity distribution and generation companies, the DisCos and GenCos, a "cartel of failed investors." It insists that public money must not be used to subsidise private sector failures that have directly harmed Nigerian workers, businesses, and households.
Current Structure (Fragmented)
NLC's Proposed Model (Unified)
The Failed Privatisation of 2013 and What the NLC Wants to Change
The NLC's demands are rooted in a decade of frustration with the 2013 privatisation of Nigeria's power sector under former President Goodluck Jonathan. At the time, the government sold off the generation and distribution arms of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), handing them to private investors.
More than a decade later, the NLC argues this experiment has failed completely. Private operators have not delivered the investment or service improvements that justified the handover. Instead, they have focused on pushing tariff increases while infrastructure decays and Nigerians endure erratic power supply.
The NLC now argues that the state must take back control of Nigeria's energy direction. A unified Ministry of Energy would, in its view, allow the government to mobilise public finance for investment across the entire energy value chain, from gas supply through to the last-mile distribution of electricity.
Three Core Demands: What the NLC Is Asking the Federal Government to Do
How a Unified Energy Ministry Could Fix Nigeria's Gas Supply Crisis
One of the most practical arguments the NLC makes is about gas-to-power coordination. Nigeria has gas. It has thermal power plants that need that gas. But those two realities exist in separate bureaucratic worlds, managed by separate ministries with separate priorities.
Under a unified Energy Ministry, the NLC argues, the same body responsible for petroleum extraction would be directly accountable for electricity generation. If the power plants go dark because gas pipelines are empty, there is no other ministry to blame. That accountability, the Congress says, changes everything.
The NLC also wants gas reclassified as a national resource primarily intended for domestic industrialisation. Right now, gas is exported while Nigerians burn diesel in generators. The NLC calls this a design flaw that enriches a narrow elite while paralysing the productive economy.
NLC Calls for Service-Reflective Tariffs to Replace the Current Cost-Reflective Model
Beyond the structural merger, the NLC takes direct aim at the tariff regime. The current cost-reflective model means Nigerians pay tariffs based on what it costs operators to run the system, including their inefficiencies and profit margins.
The NLC wants this replaced with a service-reflective model. In simple terms: you pay for what you actually receive. If the power is not there, the tariff does not apply. This shift, the NLC argues, would force operators to actually improve service, or face direct financial consequences.
Ajaero framed this as a question of basic justice. Nigerians are currently being asked to fund a system that fails them every day. Workers, manufacturers, and small businesses carry the cost of a power sector that refuses to deliver, while private operators collect tariffs and government considers bailing out the same companies with public money.
Why This NLC Statement Matters Beyond Labour Politics
The NLC's intervention is significant for several reasons. This is not just a trade union demanding better wages. This is Nigeria's largest labour federation making a detailed structural argument about energy governance, backed by specific policy proposals.
The statement signals that labour is prepared to publicly oppose the Federal Government's approach to the power sector, including its bailout plans, on economic and ideological grounds. The NLC has framed the merger demand not as administrative convenience, but as a matter of national sovereignty over energy resources.
The reference to the Dangote-NUPENG dispute is also notable. The NLC warned that a unified Energy Ministry must resist the consolidation of private power over downstream petroleum and electricity pricing. The NLC sees regulatory capture as a real risk, and argues that only a strong, unified ministry can stand against it.
What Happens Next: The Federal Government Has Not Yet Responded
As of the time of this publication, the Federal Government has not issued an official response to the NLC's demands. The Ministries of Power and Petroleum have not commented publicly on the merger proposal.
The call for a National Stakeholders' Summit adds political pressure to the equation. If the government agrees to the summit, it risks legitimising the NLC's critique of the existing structure. If it ignores the demand, it risks escalating labour tensions at a time when Nigeria's cost-of-living crisis is already inflaming public anger.
Nigeria's power sector challenges are not new. But the NLC's decision to combine the ministry merger demand with a rejection of the ₦6 trillion bailout makes this a sharper political confrontation. Watch this space.
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