Energy Crisis: NLC Proposes Unified Ministry for Power, Petroleum

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has proposed the immediate merger of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and the Federal Ministry of Power to create a single, unified Ministry of Energy.

In a Sunday statement made available to TVC News, the union expressed that the continued stagnation of the nation’s power sector has become a perpetual millstone around the necks of Nigerian workers, manufacturers, and the masses.

The Union stressed that while the elites linked to the DISCOs and GENCOs continue to feast on the commonwealth through what it described as ‘phantom subsidy claims and outrageous tariff hikes’, the Nigerian people are left to pay for darkness.

The statement reads, “The recent alarm raised by the NLC over the proposed ₦6 trillion bailout for power generation companies is merely a symptom of a deeper structural rot. We cannot continue to apply bandages to a system that is fundamentally fractured.

Therefore, we are proposing a radical structural intervention: the immediate merger of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum and the Federal Ministry of Power to create a single, unified Ministry of Energy. For too long, these two critical ministries have operated in silos, serving the interests of separate fractions of the bourgeoisie while the productive base of our economy collapses.”

NLC maintained that the nation’s thermal power generation, which accounts for the bulk of our grid capacity, is held hostage by gas supply gaps, noting that the gas is controlled by the Petroleum sector, saying it “operates like a rent-seeking enclave with no accountability to the people’s need for electricity.”

NLC said, “It is unfortunate that the government, through the ‘petroleum industry, ‘ treats gas as a commodity for export to fetch foreign exchange for the elite, while the ‘power sector’ begs for feedstock to keep the lights on.

“This functional dependency is a design flaw that serves the primitive accumulation of capital. The Petroleum Ministry prioritises the profits of International Oil Companies (IOCs) and local moguls, while the Power Ministry is left to explain to Nigerians why the grid collapses because the gas pipelines are empty or vandalised by those who profit from the importation of diesel and generators.”

The NLC argued that the creation of a unified Ministry of Energy to break these “compartmentalised fiefdoms” is not a mere administrative tinkering, but a political demand to assert national sovereignty over Nigeria’s energy resources.

NLC said, “Under a single ministry, there would be one minister accountable to the Nigerian people, not a collection of officials playing the blame game. When the power plants are down due to a lack of gas, the same ministry responsible for petroleum extraction would be directly implicated.”

The union further argued that the move will end the era where the Power Minister blames the Petroleum Minister, and the Petroleum Minister blames “market forces” and “global volatility.”

NLC emphasised that, “This merger is a pathway to rationalise the sector based on public interest, not private profit. It will facilitate a holistic view of our energy assets, ensuring that gas, a national heritage, is first and foremost used to generate domestic power to industrialise the nation and create jobs, rather than being flared or exported while Nigerians suffer in darkness. This will, we are sure, enhance national Energy planning, which is key to national development.

“It will allow Nigeria to price electricity fairly by ending the “Cost-Reflective” model. As we know already, the current regime forces Nigerians to pay for the inefficiency and greed of private investors.

“A unified Ministry would prioritise service-reflective tariffs as service delivery becomes the Ministry’s main driver. This way, we ensure that workers and Nigerians pay fair rates for actual service, not costs imposed by inefficiencies and greed.”

NLC added that, “We have seen how monopoly capital, as witnessed in the Dangote-NUPENG face-off, seeks to control both downstream petroleum and the narrative around energy pricing.

“A unified Energy Ministry must act as a bulwark against this, ensuring that the energy sector serves the goal of national development, not the enrichment of a few oligarchs.”

The NLC reiterates that electricity is a social service and a fundamental right, not a luxury commodity to be traded on the various capitalists’ markets.

NLC said, “The failed privatisation experiment of 2013 has proven that the private sector cannot, and will not, solve Nigeria’s power crisis. Their business model is built on extracting maximum tariffs while providing minimum service.

“By merging the ministries, we take the first step toward de-commodifying energy. We move towards a system where the State, through a coordinated Ministry of Energy, can mobilise public finance for investment in generation, transmission, and distribution, just as it is done in nations that have lifted their citizens out of poverty.”

The Union called on the Federal Government to initiate the process of merging the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Power into a single Ministry of Energy, urging the government to halt the proposed ₦6 trillion bailout to the GENCOs.

“Our commonwealth cannot be used to settle a cartel of failed investors; convene a genuine National Stakeholders’ Summit to draft a People’s Power Roadmap that prioritises public ownership, energy security, and the welfare of Nigerian workers and masses.

“The working class and the people of Nigeria cannot continue to be hostages to the artificial scarcity created by the decapitation of our national resources. We demand that the government treat our energy as a unified whole, managed for the benefit of the many, not the greed of the few.”

“When workers and the broader citizenry are in darkness, the economy is paralysed. It is time to unite the ministries, unify the vision, and take back the power sector for our nation,” the statement concluded.