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Steel workers urge FG to dissolve BPE board for failure of privatised automobile sector

By Gloria Nwafor
25 October 2022   |   4:04 am
The Steel and Engineering Workers' Union of Nigeria Auto and Precision Sector (SEWUN) has asked the Federal Government to urgently dissolve the Board of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) over alleged failure of the privatisation exercise in the automobile sector.

The Steel and Engineering Workers’ Union of Nigeria Auto and Precision Sector (SEWUN) has asked the Federal Government to urgently dissolve the Board of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) over alleged failure of the privatisation exercise in the automobile sector.

The union alleged that the Federal Government dissolving the board was pertinent as the whole exercise was a fraud, accusing the board of selling automobile manufacturing companies to people with no knowledge, expertise or technical skills to either manufacture or assemble vehicles.

National President of SEWUN, Auto and Precision Sector, Elijah Adigun, made the allegations at the union’s yearly industrial relations conference, held in Ibadan, with the theme ‘Human Resource Management, Conflict Resolution, Industrial Relations and Labour Legislation Issues’.

According to him, the BPE has done more harm than good to the Nigerian state.

Mentioning automobile companies like Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited in Kaduna, Volkswagen Nigeria Limited in Lagos, Annamco in Enugu and Leyland Bussan Motor in Ibadan, among others, he queried Nigerians who are supporting the privatisation exercise to list any of the automobile companies currently doing well as stated by the BPE.

He alleged that the BPE under the supervision of government officials simply sold the companies to their friends and family members, who in turn sold the assets of the companies and left skeletal services, as well as abandoned the employees.

“The whole exercise was a fraud and colossal failure. Incredibly, the Nigerian people watched akimbo, while those that pledged to revitalize these companies and create massive jobs connived with officials of the BPE to rip off the country. Unfortunately, some of this personnel are clamouring to rule Nigeria now and we are still watching instead of exposing them all.’’

“These companies had a combined workforce of more than 20,000 but today, you hardly cannot find up to 200 in all the companies put together. This is the situation that one of the candidates is telling us that he wants to replicate. Wonderful! We are in for a hard time if such mindset wins,” he said

He urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, not only to recover the companies but to expose and charge the fraudsters to court as a way of seeking redress for the Nigerian people.

According to him, this is a worthy legacy the government will surely leave behind; otherwise, the country will continue to drift.

Among other issues, Adigun lamented how the industry is poorly impacted by the economy, thereby making their job difficult.

According to him: “There is no forex to import raw materials for production and in some cases, cost of procurement and production have tremendously skyrocketed as a result of galloping inflation occasioned by these forex challenges.

“High energy costs, increasing interest rates and all other forms of negativities have led to redundancies, particularly in the automobile and precision electrical industries. As we speak, some of our cable manufacturing companies are idling away because there is no raw material to effect production,” he added.

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