Should the Federal Government proceed with the privatization of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has vowed to destroy the country's economy with a general strike.
The union said that since the privatization of distribution businesses failed to produce any good changes, the Federal Government had been making covert measures to privatize TCN.
TCN, which is tasked with supplying large quantities of electricity to the nation's distribution companies and stations, may soon be sold to the private sector.
The union discussed the purported efforts by the FG to privatize TCN during the fifth triennial delegate conference of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Lagos Genco & Transco Administrative Council, held on Saturday at the National Control Centre Osogbo, Osun State.
They advised members to get ready for significant industrial action that will occur suddenly.
Anthony Agyake, Assistant General Secretary NUEE Lagos G&T Admin and Special Duties, cautioned the Federal Government to abandon its efforts to privatize the sector or the strike action that would follow would completely cripple the country's economy.
Agyake said, "We have sent a combined letter to the Presidency, outlining the repercussions of selling the sole bargaining leverage the government has, and similarly advising that such terrible proposal be dropped. We have heard several rumors that the government is preparing to privatize TCN. The union would not be happy to witness further damage to the power industry and remain silent, as Nigerians are still suffering from the effects of the government's failure to learn from the privatization of both the generation and distribution businesses.
He bemoaned the fact that Nigerians were yet to experience the benefits of the privatizations that took place roughly nine years ago, and that the entire nation would be in danger if the government continued to handle TCN in this manner.
He claimed that no one seems to have examined the security risk associated with the government selling TCN and added that it was regrettable that the academics and researchers who could have assisted the government were on strike for months.
The President should treat that letter as notice, Agyake said as he read from a section of the letter to FG regarding the ongoing problem. We could hear that TCN is being privatized at any time, therefore the government shouldn't anticipate receiving any other notification from anyone since we would then start taking strike action. no 21-day warning. not two days in advance. We'll undoubtedly start working less.
Similar to this, Sadiq Adewale, vice president (west) of NUEE, urged the union's officials, including those from the states and chapters, to assume their duties.
According to him, the union's leadership had instructed members to prepare for actions against management abuse in the power sector, involving the Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Companies. This indicated that there had been several negotiations and agreements on worker benefits that the Government was handling lightly.
The union was completely prepared to reexamine some of these problems, according to NUEE Vice President (West).
He claims that some of the worker requests that caused the industrial unrest have not yet been met. "The union embarked on and suspended a few hours of industrial action that threw the country into darkness barely a few months ago," he claims.
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