By Eberechi Obinagwam
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has told Nigerians to hold the Minister of Power responsible for any action if after a fresh 14-day ultimatum, the government fails to implement the December 11, 2019 agreement.
The union made the disclosure in Lagos.
The General Secretary, Joe Ajaero, said that the union was giving a fresh 14-day ultimatum to the government to reach their agreement, else they would shut down the power sector indefinitely.
Ajaero, accused the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Agba, of harassment and intimidation during the union’s negotiation on challenges affecting workers in the sector.
He said that though government agencies had intervened in the matter, the union has not gotten any timely implementation of its demands.
Pointing out the issues surrounding the implementation, he said at the centre of the dispute was the non-payment of the entitlements of workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) laid off when the company was privatised as well as short-payment and conditions of service for workers of electricity companies.
On workers of the generating companies, (GENCOs), he said that the union decided to build schools for their kids in such areas because where the generating companies were sited were excluded from where people were living.
He explained that the Power Sector Reform Act provides that power stations be handed over to some investors but not the primary schools which were seized.
“By virtue of the Act, even if there are buildings, it is the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company that will take them, not the GenCos.”
Ajaero also disclosed that in the last six years, the union had taken the matter up, adding that on two or three occasions, they had cause to lock up the office of the BPE and they would tell them that they had cleared up some names waiting for the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay.
“But up to this moment nothing has happened,” he said.