…Says Nigeria not ripe for privatisation
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Wednesday said that Nigeria was not ripe for the privatisation of electricity sector.
The Secretary General of the union, Mr Moses Amedu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
He decried the over zealousness of the investors in taking over the electricity companies, saying it would be to the detriment of Nigerians.
Amedu appealed to the investors to exercise some restraints, stressing that “it is the PHCN that has been privatised and not the National Union of Electricity Employees”.
“We learnt that the electricity investors were going about the companies to paste names of staff disengaged and the names of staff who will be re-engaged.
“The NUEE is not privatised and we will see to the adequate welfare of our members in the electricity industries, whether being managed by private or the Government.
“We, the union expected to sit down with the investors to enable us draw a condition of service and it is upon this condition of service they should operate.
“But as things are, the investors are so much in a hurry to throw away our members, even when they have not been paid their severance package”.
Amedu said all the agreements signed by the Federal Government and the union had not been made available to the investors before disengaging his members.
The union scribe said 70 per cent might have been paid their severance package, while only 30 per cent of the electricity employees had received the Pension Fund Account (PFA) alert.
“The retirement saving account for the 47, 000 employees have not been funded, while some of our members are yet to be cleared for any of these payments.
“The pension components of the payment have not been attended to,” he said.
Amedu said a total of seven thousand employees in the electricity sector were yet to be paid their severance package.
He said that 40, 000 out of the 47, 000 of its members across the nation had been paid.
The secretary general advised its members not to sign any letter of disengagement until they were fully paid.
