- Says despite N2trn government investment, the sector still remains standstill
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
After 10 years of privatising the power sector, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has called for a review of the privatisation policy. saying that despite the N2 trillion the Federal Government has spent in the sector, generation is still at 4,000 megawatts.
Speaking during a meeting with the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in Abuja, the president of NUEE, Engineer Martin Uzoegwu, said that before privatisation, the nation was producing between 3000 and 4,000 megawatts. Ten years down the line, the nation is still hovering around 4,000 megawatts.
“Since after privatisation it has been one step forward, two steps backward. Fifty per cent of our members were retrenched and till date the government has not paid the shortfall of 16 months of their severance package. Affected workers in the verification are over 150,000. Many of them have died” he regretted.
According to him, privatisation of the power sector has totally failed and the union told the government at the beginning that the nation was not ripe for privatisation.
“We need to revisit the privatisation act. The distribution companies (DisCos) are not recapitalising because they don’t have money to do so. We should commercialise it and look for those who can fund it. From privatisation till date the government has spent up to N2 trillion. They (DisCos and GenCos) have not improved or added to the old network they met on ground. They have a lot of commercial and technical losses” he said.
Referring to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu’s statement on securing the network, NUEE said that the power sector is not a sector where the workers are intimidated and harassed. Rather, the union should be invited by the authorities for dialogue and fruitful communication.
He pleaded with the government not to privatise the transmission side of the power value chain as most of the rots are from the distribution and generation companies.
Responding, Adelabu promised that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) will not be privatised in his time.
“Rumour on the privatisation of TCN is not true. Not in my time. We can do restructuring but it can still be under the government” the minister promised
He observed that the territorial coverage of DisCos is too large and should be revisited for effective performance.