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By Bimbola Oyesola
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has reiterated that the economic policy of the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, targeting privatisation, is nothing but retrogressive.
In an interview with the Daily Sun Workforce, general secretary of the union, Joe Ajaero, condemning the three-point agenda/economic policy, said the policy was anti-people.
Ajaero challenged the PDP presidential standard-bearer to a debate on how the policy would impact positively on the masses. He vowed that never again shall Nigerians swallow the hemlock, or make room for private gains and public disaster.
“The union challenges Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to a debate on national television to prove how this retrogressive economic policy will impact positively on the masses,” he said.
Atiku recently rolled out a three-point agenda, targeting Privatisation of Refineries, Rail Sector, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and breaking monopoly of all other infrastructure operations.
Ajaero said, “It is with a deep sense of patriotism that we inform Nigerians about the present motive of this presidential candidate who seems to want to finish what is left of our common patrimony as a nation.”
He noted that Atiku was the chairman of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), a government committee entrusted with the responsibility of managing the privatization programme initiated by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to handle the disposal of public enterprises.
According to Ajaero, some persons have been alleged of literally buying almost every enterprise on offer through their cronies and fronts.
He said, “Of the over 60 enterprises privatized when he became NCP chairman in 1999, how many of them are functioning optimally? From the Osogbo steel rolling mill, which has become a glorified warehouse, to the abysmal performances of the privatized generation companies (GenCos) and distribution companies (DisCos) over eight years after privatization.
“From 17 out of the 18 companies sold in the power sector, none is yet to break even while the Federal Government has pumped in about N2 trillion as subvention to these privately-owned companies, power generation has nose-dived from 4,000 mega watts to 2,000 MW in nine years.”
He stated that, as an organisation, the union had raised the alarm over the years about the security implications of handing over the entire (security) power sector into the hands of private individuals.
“Who are the ‘faceless’ owners of these private companies and why are they shrouded in so much secrecy?
“Since this privatization agenda commenced, many Nigerians lost their jobs, many Nigerians have died as a result of non payment of their entitlements, many Nigerians are sick and hungry with their children thrown out of school as the onslaught against Nigerian masses continue in the name of privatization,” he lamented.
