ABUJA: Nigeria was plunged into another nationwide blackout on Wednesday following the collapse of the national power grid, leaving homes and businesses in darkness and drawing harsh criticism from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The incident, which occurred around 11:20 a.m., saw electricity generation plummet from 3,972 megawatts (MW) at 10 a.m. to just 20.80 MW by noon, as all 21 power plants connected to the grid recorded zero output.
Distribution companies, including the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), confirmed the outage, saying supply across their franchise areas dropped to zero around 11:23 a.m.
AEDC, in a statement to its customers, said: The power outage currently being experienced is due to a loss of supply from the national grid. We are working closely with stakeholders to ensure restoration once the grid is stabilized.
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) attributed the collapse to a “tripping incident at a generation company, which triggered a cascading load drop across other plants.
NISO explained that restoration efforts began at 11:45 a.m., starting with power from the Shiroro Power Plant to Abuja, and by 6 p.m., about 1,505 MW had been restored nationwide. A full investigation has been launched to determine both the immediate and remote causes.
But the recurring collapse has once again sparked outrage. The NLC condemned the federal government’s handling of the power sector and rejected its plan to inject N4 trillion ($2.7bn) into electricity companies, describing it as economic betrayal.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the recurrent blackouts are a direct consequence of failed privatisation and political patronage in key regulatory appointments.
This catastrophe is not an accident; it is the deliberate outcome of a capitalist ruling class that has engineered the sector to fail and exploit Nigerians. To sink another kobo of public money into failed operators is a scandal, he declared.
The union demanded that the government redirect such funds into a public-led programme to build new generation and transmission capacity, insisting that the crisis was a product of governance failure rather than technical fault.
It also called for a comprehensive public audit of the power sector since privatisation in 2013.
Between 2015 and 2025, Nigeria’s grid has collapsed at least 105 times 93 of them under the Buhari administration, with multiple failures continuing under President Bola Tinubu.
The latest breakdown, coming months after a similar collapse in February 2025, has deepened concerns over the viability of the power sector.
For businesses, the impact was immediate. Small enterprises reliant on daily electricity were forced to shut down temporarily, while larger firms bore the cost of alternative power sources.
Economic experts warn that the frequent grid collapses will continue to erode investor confidence and worsen the cost-of-living crisis.
The NLC has vowed to resist further government bailouts of the power companies, warning that Nigerians will no longer tolerate this darkness.
