Privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria was never meant to succeed-NUEE
By allcitynews.ng
The National Union of Electricity Workers of Nigeria (NUEE) has again voiced out its age-long disappointment over the privatisation of the Power Holdibng Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
In its latest outcry, NUEE noted that despite the past warning against sales of the company, Federal Government went ahead with the plan which has hit the rock as at today based on the inability of the investors to inject expected turnaround development to the electricity supply.
In a statement, the Acting General Secretary, Dominic Igwebike, argued that "The privatisation was not designed to improve supply; it was designed to divide the system so that a handful of speculators could profit from public assets."
The renewed condemnation became imperative following the alleged publication of betrayal by one online newspaper.
NUEE, in the statement titled: "The manager who never joined the union but now preaches workers rights: a sponsored deception exposed", reiterated its lamentation over years of Nigerians payment for electricity they are never really enjoyed.
According to Igwebike, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has observed with utter dismay a sponsored publication in Sahara Reporters, wherein one mischievous former manager of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) levelled baseless allegations against the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and General Secretary of our great Union, Comrade Joe Ajaero.
We would have chosen to ignore this obvious hatchet job; an obvious assignment from known enemies of Nigerian workers and their heroic leaders. However, we consider this a welcome opportunity to once again expose the irresponsibility of our oppressors and their lackeys, and to demonstrate the lengths to which they will go to demonise the champions of Nigerian workers in pursuit of their clear but hidden agenda.
Ours has been a history of honest and consistent struggle which has become a model to the international trade union movement. Let it be recorded for history that Comrade Joe Ajaero, as General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), led the most fierce and principled opposition to the privatisation of the power sector under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
His has justified Ajaero over his warning, and history has vindicated him, that the privatisation exercise was a "grand deception"; a fraudulent transfer of public wealth to investors who lacked both technical capacity and financial strength, who borrowed heavily from Nigerian banks and now expect workers to pay for their loans through outrageous tariffs.
As the NLC President and our General Secretary have consistently argued, over a decade after privatisation, generation remains at the same level of 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts recorded before the exercise, while Nigerians suffer frequent grid collapses and soaring tariffs.
The publication betrays a fundamental ignorance of labour processes. The writer, perhaps deliberately, failed to recognise that three unions (NUEE, SSAEC and NUP) negotiated for the workers, and that the heads of these unions are their Presidents.
Comrade Ajaero was and remains the General Secretary of NUEE; a position of immense responsibility; and was not a President of any single union at the time. He is currently the President of the NLC, a position to which Nigerian workers elected him because of his proven track record of defending their interests.
The Presidents of those Unions led the negotiations, the outcomes of which yielded the
best benefits for workers in any privatisation exercise in Nigeria. The 10 per cent equity share agreement was a product of collective bargaining. It was not agreed that it was going to be gifted for free to workers.
Let us ask the former manager a simple question: Did he pay for the allotment of shares, or did the unions hijack the process for their own use?
The truth is that the Government, through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), informed us recently as a result of our pressures vide a communication with our lawyer during the exercise; Barrister Femi Falana (SAN) that they had sent it to the floor of the Stock Exchange where workers were expected to follow the process and purchase theirs. Any suggestion otherwise is a deliberate falsehood designed to mislead the public.
On the 7.5% Pension Fund contribution, because workers were not contributing before the exercise, we compelled the government to contribute a lump sum to the PFA for the benefit of workers. It is from this contribution that exited workers including this ignorant writer currently receives monthly pension.
We would want this ungrateful fellow who is now shamelessly benefitting from the efforts of the same unions he disdained to show the public where he made any single contribution to his PFA.
The allegation regarding 16 months' unpaid salaries and gratuity payments demonstrates either profound ignorance or willful deception. In 2012, a comprehensive agreement was signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, representatives of the Ministries of Labour and Power, the BPE, and key union leaders; which listed eight key items: payment of exit benefits, gratuity, death benefits, settlement of 16 months' salary arrears, post-retirement training, 10 per cent equity share, and resolution of non-core assets in power stations.
Furthermore, in 2019, another agreement was signed reaffirming these commitments. Yet the BPE, the very agency responsible for implementing these agreements, has repeatedly reneged. Our Union and our sister unions have had to fight continuously; even threatening to shut down the national grid; to compel the government to honour its obligations.
The former manager, who was part of management, should have known that the 16 months arrears could no longer be implemented because of the timing of the agreement and the final exit point. From the date the agreement was signed, workers continued receiving their salaries well beyond the 16 months thus negating that particular clause yet, we insisted and BPE was compelled to start paying some people but stopped when some others went to Court to stop the payment to workers, and we do not know where the phantom account of funds having been diverted by Union leaders came from 13 years later. The BPE is still in existence and can readily receive petitions and claims from any aggrieved worker either through their Unions or directly.
The writer alleges that N400 billion was realised from the sale of PHCN but refuses to inform the public that this same amount was completely used in settling workers' benefits because of the insistence of the Union leaders.
The BPE itself has disclosed that it spent about N409.9 billion on the payment of severance benefits to ex-workers and death benefits. The unions did not "get" this money; it was paid to workers as their rightful entitlements; including this dishonest peddler; but he skillfully avoided informing the public that this is the case.
This former manager should answer this question: how much did he receive as his entitlement, and who negotiated it for him? If he is so concerned about transparency, he should provide evidence of any unpaid salary arrears, even for one month, and allow verification with the BPE.
If not for the sake of the over 95% of workers who rejoiced at the unexpected huge benefits they got, we would have called for a review of their entitlements and all that was obtained through the arm-twisting of government by the Unions during the exercise so that the excesses would be refunded to government coffers.
What the former manager conveniently ignores is the real scandal; that the government has reportedly committed trillions of naira to support the privatised electricity sector entities; far more than was ever got from privatizing it while workers continue to suffer and Nigerians pay for darkness.
This is the "well-orchestrated robbery of the Nigerian people" that NUEE and the NLC have consistently exposed it has become clear who the real enemy of workers is. For 13 years, this former manager who had a disdain for workers and the Unions has received and enjoyed his exit package.
Only now, after more than a decade, does he suddenly "discover" that workers are being owed? We wonder what has changed. Could it be that certain enemies of Nigerian workers and the labour movement have found a willing tool to attack our Union, the NLC, and its leadership? The answer is obvious.
When a man who spent his career fighting unions suddenly becomes their defender after 13 years, ask not what changed; ask who paid him to change.
This is the same individual who, as a manager, refused to belong to any union and was reportedly
an arrowhead in the fight against the union. Now he presents himself as a defender of workers!
This is the height of hypocrisy. He displayed "high-level ignorance" by failing to understand the meaning of equity shareholding and the collective nature of union negotiations.
If this individual truly believes that the privatisation was such a robbery, why did he wait 13 years to speak; and why is he aiming his anger at the only man who opposed it at the risk of his personal safety from the start? The answer is very clear even to the blind.
The National Union of Electricity Employees stands firm in its commitment to defending the rights of Nigerian workers in the electricity sector and beyond. We call on all genuine workers to see this publication for what it is; a sponsored attack designed to divide the working class and weaken the labour movement.
The enemies of workers fear our Union and the NLC leadership because they have consistently exposed the power sector privatisation as one of Nigeria's biggest scams, and they will stop at nothing to silence us.
To every Nigerian worker, we say: remain united. Do not allow these agents of capital and their
shameless lackeys to sow confusion among us. The struggle for justice, fair treatment, and the restoration of electricity as a social service continues. We remain committed to our struggle for a stronger trade union movement and will not allow ourselves to be distracted by the disgusting farts of the minnows of our traducers.
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