Total darkness looms across Nigeria as Labour unions shut national power grid, drive away workers

The Transmission Company of Nigeria has announced the immediate shutdown of the national power grid by the striking labour union resulting in total blackout across Nigeria.

The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2.19 am Monday, 3rd June 2024.

The nationwide strike commenced across Nigeria on Monday after negotiations failed between the government and organised labour unions over the minimum wage dispute.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had on Friday declared a nationwide strike beginning from Monday, June 3rd, 2024 over the tripartite committee’s inability to agree on a new minimum wage and hike in electricity tariff.

The organised labour bodies are seeking a new minimum wage to cushion the biting cost of living in Nigeria that has reached new record levels, following the removal of subsidy and floating of the local currency.

A statement by Ndidi Mbah, GM Public Affairs said, “At about 1:15am 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 that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.

“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations. Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.

“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, 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 2:19am.

“At about 3.23am, however, 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.”

The TCN vows to continue to make efforts to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide.