Peter Uzoho
Electricity workers in Nigeria have criticised the distribution companies (Discos) and the generation companies (Gencos) over the continuous poor power supply in the country after privatisation and handing over the distribution and generation arm of the power sector to new owners.
The Zonal Organising Secretary (Liaison), National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Kolade Ayodele, specifically told journalists that the new owners of the power assets, whom he described as “hustlers” deceived the federal government into giving them N2 trillion intervention to them.
He said rather than being an intervention fund as claimed by the government and the power firms, the N2 trillion intervention fund was the companies’ way of collecting back the money the paid to acquire the assets in 2013.
Alleging that the private operators have continued to impoverish Nigerians and have contributed poorly to the power sector, leaving the country pillaged, Ayodele called for the government to immediately reverse the privatisation of the nation’s power sector,
Noting that despite recognisable improvements in the wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) of 7,000 megawatts, he said the generation output had now dwindled below 5,000MW.
The union fingered the activities of the new owners as part of the reasons the power sector has gone almost comatose and the impoverishment of the average worker in the sector.
Ayodele said Nigerians should also be worried as electricity tariffs continued to rise without commensurate service delivery.
“Despite improvement in the wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, which is still Federal Government-owned to over 7,000MW, the generation output has been dwindling below 5,000MW.
“Alas! the ‘hustlers’ who deceived the federal government into paying almost N2 trillion subvention to the owners of the new companies since privatisation, are being used to call the union names in order to exploit Nigerians and sustain the current comatose situation. Their mission is simply to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it, while they keep smiling to the banks,” he stated.
Ayodele explained that since the privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector in October 2013, the NUEE had been in the fore-front of speaking out on behalf of the Nigerian people.
Stating that it was an undeniable truth that the power sector privatisation had not added any value to the lives of the ordinary Nigerians, Ayodele noted that the entire exercise, which he described as a charade, had not brought any meaningful impact or improvement to the sector.
According to him, the exercise has rather led the nation to a huge setback, pointing out that the infrastructural development by the new business owners in the power sector has almost gone comatose while the socio-economic status of the average worker in the sector has continued to decline amid prevailing harsh economic conditions.
“The same equipment inherited from pre-privatisation have remained what drives the sector as there are no visible attempts by the Gencos and Discos to upgrade and expand their capacities/networks.
“Nigerians were deceived into believing that the ‘harvestors’ had the financial/technical muscles to improve power generation and distribution to Nigerians. Can Nigerians be told today that this purpose has been achieved?
“The answer was echoed in the print/electronic media by members of the National Assembly who even called for the total reversal of the entire process,” the NUEE official alleged.
