Keep Off PHCN, Union Tells Prospective Buyers
September 27, 2006
Keep Off PHCN, Union Tells Prospective Buyers. Check it out:(This Day (Nigeria) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Electricity workers in the South-west zone, yesterday rejected the on-going privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) by the Federal Government, and warned prospective buyers to keep off in their own interests.
The workers, under the platform of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), told President Olusegun Obasanjo not to go ahead with privatisation of the electricity company, maintaining that prospective buyers are doing so at their own risks.
Its General Secretary, Comrade Joe Ajaero, while speaking in Ibadan, also called for the immediate dissolution of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), claiming that the enterprise had not given any direct benefit to Nigerians and that it had outlived its usefulness.
Addressing reporters at the union headquarters in Ibadan on the state of PHCN, Ajaero admitted that they have been selfish in their previous dialogue with the Federal Government on the privatisation exercise, saying the decision not to allow the sale of the electricity company was to protect the interest of the citizenry.
According to him, "there is a new twist in our campaign regarding privatisation of PHCN, contrary to our initial position that labour issues including workers' rights and salaries must be taken care of by prospective buyers but now we have resolved to resist the privation of not only the electricity board, but water, because the two are matters of human rights that must be provided by government for the citizenry.
As a result, we are putting a caveat to the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), that anyone who buys PHCN installations is on his own.
"We have come to realise the scandal in Transcorp and Eleme Petrochemicals, and we are of the view that the BPE is not transparent, it is merely allocating slots to those who are in government. Let the organisation debunk our claims by telling Nigerians how they have benefited from the privatisation exercise," he said.
Ajaero challenged the BPE to tender concrete evidence to convince Nigerians how they had benefited from privatisation, adding that "the exercise has inflicted more injuries on Nigerians. It should not exist again."
The meeting, which drew chairmen from the South-west, vowed that the union would resist any attempt by l government to privatise electricity and water, describing the two as basic necessity that citizenry should enjoy.
He lamented that a whopping sum of N1trillion had been pumped into electricity, "still Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the money," and called on patriotic Nigerians and non-governmental organisationsto set up an independent committee, headed by either Chief Gani Fawehinmi or Olisa Agbakoba, to look into privatisation and see how far it has helped us in this country.
He wondered how government could be planning to privatise a company without carrying the employees of the company along, citing the instance of how government has refused to settle workers of the privatised Nigerian Ports Authority and Nigerian Airways.
he threatened that NUEE workers would not allow their rights to be trampled upon.
Said he "Look at the case of the NPA and Nigeria Airways, when government privatized the two companies especially Nigeria Airways, drove away all the workers resident in the government quarters and those houses are now overgrown with weeds".
He enjoined Nigerians not to see their struggle as a selfish one, but said it was high time for Nigerians to stop suffering in silence
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
Copyright 2006 Accra Mail. Distributed by Allafrica Global Media.
Related Tags: prospective buyers, government, Nigerians, nigerians, electricity, privatisation
Cosmos
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
BoingBoing
Furl
Spurl
Listed below are links to sites that reference Keep Off PHCN, Union Tells Prospective Buyers:
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for Keep Off PHCN, Union Tells Prospective Buyers:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt3/mt-tb.fcgi/28189Previous blog: Holcim SA Retains 62.5pc Stake in Tanga Cement
VoIP for Enterprise Home PageComments to Keep Off PHCN, Union Tells Prospective Buyers
