Electricity workers raise alarm over aging electricity infrastructure, blames power firms for poor investment
Oredola Adeola
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has alleged that private companies that bought the Eleven distribution companies and seven generating companies were so different private companies, have left the power infrastructure in comatose, several years after the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity assets.
Mr. Sikamta Mshelinga, the North-East Zonal Senior Organising Secretary of the union, made the allegation at a press conference on Monday in Jos, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
According to the electricity workers, infrastructural development by the new business owners in the sector has almost gone comatose despite a promise by the private sector to turn around the aging infrastructure.
The Association also bemoans the new management of the power assets over non-payment of entitlements of discharged workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), poor remuneration, lack of welfare packages, and poor condition of service, among other ill-treatments for electricity workers in the country.
faulted the privatization lamenting the poor state of power in Nigeria.
Mshelinga noted that the privatisation of the sector has also brought no meaningful impact or improvement on the sector, rather, it has brought so many setbacks to the nation.
While condemning the entire privatisation process, the North-East Zonal Senior Organising Secretary of NUEE noted that the process has not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians.
He said, “The privatisation exercise provided no value to the lives of ordinary Nigerians, and has not made a meaningful impact in power supply in the country.
”It is an undeniable fact that the power sector privatisation has not added value to the lives of the ordinary Nigerians.
”The entire exercise did not bring any meaningful impact or improvement on the sector, rather, it has brought so many setbacks to the country.
”The infrastructural development by the new business owners in the sector has almost gone comatose while the socio-economic status of the average worker in the sector has continued to decline.
”Nigerians were told that the new investors had the financial and technical muscles to improve power generation and distribution, but I believe that has not been achieved,” he said.
Mshelinga also faulted the lack of power supply in the nation amid rising electricity tariffs without making prepaid meters available to customers.
The NUEE scribe however challenged the Federal Government to review the entire power sector privatisation process with a view to ending decades of debilitating energy crisis.
