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*Says people ‘re making profit out of Nigeria’s power failure•

Insists Govt must end payment for darkness

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has called for a fundamental shake-up of Nigeria’s energy sector, saying the country’s current energy model has failed to deliver energy security and is instead leaving Nigerians to pay for persistent power shortages.
The National Coordinator of the NLC’s Climate Change, Green Jobs, and Just Transition Programme, Eche Asuzu, spoke on the sidelines of the just-concluded New Energy for Africa II Convening: African Workers’ Contributions to Energy Sovereignty, Green Industrialisation, and a Common African Position for COP31, held in Nairobi, Kenya, and organised by the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC-Africa.
He said Nigeria must move away from a top-down approach to energy policy and adopt a people-centred system that treats energy as a public good rather than a commodity driven primarily by profit.
Azuzu  also called for greater government involvement in the sector, the democratisation of energy policy and urgent measures to address energy poverty.
“Clearly, the models we have adopted have not worked, and that calls for a lot of political will to do the right thing,” he said.
He argued that Nigerians must be brought into discussions on energy policy because communities experiencing energy poverty understand the challenges better than those making decisions from the top.
“We have seen that the top-down approach has not worked. So, we need a system of bottom-up engagement that allows us to gather the information we need, share experiences and learn the necessary lessons that can move us forward.
“We need to democratise energy in Nigeria. We need to put people at the centre of energy policy, energy considerations and energy action.
“People are making profit out of darkness instead of generating enough power to unlock our potential as a country. That is a trend we must find a way to reverse.
“We privatised. What has become of it? We privatised, but we are producing megawatts of darkness, and that is very unfortunate.
The Federal Government must reassess its energy policies and ensure that the sector is used to drive industrialisation, economic transformation and the creation of quality jobs.
“The Constitution says government must have business in business. In the area of energy provision and the role of government in the economy, especially as it relates to energy, government must have a role.
“The earlier we jump onto that train and take our rightful position, the better for us. We must have energy, and not just any kind of energy, but green energy, so that we can position ourselves to take advantage of the current drive towards industrialisation and green industrialisation around the world.
“A continent with the youngest population in the world cannot afford not to industrialise. We must also transform our economies.
“Green jobs may not necessarily be decent jobs. So, we must make them decent by ensuring living wages, improved working conditions and, of course, social protection,” he said.
On what the Nigerian government should do immediately to address energy poverty, Asuzu said, “Our experience is one of exclusion. So far, people have been excluded, as if they do not know anything about energy. But they know energy because they use it every day.
“We should begin where it hurts us. Energy poverty is real in our country. More than 60 per cent of our population are left without affordable, sufficient and reliable energy,” he said.
Asuzu also cautioned the government against relying excessively on foreign-assisted or foreign-dominated energy policy.
“Government must bring every stakeholder on board and avoid all these foreign-assisted and foreign-dominated energy policy frameworks. They have not worked,” he said.
According to him, the long-running controversy surrounding the Mambilla Power Project must be resolved, while Nigeria’s hydropower and other green energy sources should be fully activated.
“We must be able to untangle all these issues and ensure that our green energy sources are activated,” he said.
While stressing that Nigeria should not immediately abandon fossil fuels, Asuzu said gas could play an important role as a transition fuel, provided the country adopted innovative policies around its pricing and utilisation.
“Until we de-dollarise our gas pricing structure, we will not get it right. It is a Nigerian asset. Why do we need to dollarise the payment? It is quite strange.
“These are some of the technical issues that people do not know about, but they are at the heart of the instability, pressure and hardship being transferred to Nigerian workers and the people. That must stop,” Asuzu said.