Electricity workers issue two-week ultimatum on TCN unbundling, tariff hike

.Accuse minister of unfriendly policies

Electricity workers, under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) and the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE), have issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government over the proposed unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the unilateral tariff increase being implemented without consulting critical stakeholders in the sector.

In a letter addressed to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, yesterday, the workers accused Adelabu of unfriendly and harsh policies that had made the sector perform below the quality of quality service required by Nigerians.

The acting General Secretary of NUEE, Igwebike Dominic, and General Secretary of SSAEAC, Nnamdi Ajibo, in the letter, demanded that in the interest of industrial peace and sustainability of the entire electricity value chain, the tariff increase should be reversed and that the status quo should be maintained within the next two weeks, effective May 20.

They maintained that the industrial harmony so far recorded in the sector needed to be protected by all stakeholders towards delivering uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.

The unions frowned on the proposed unbundling of TCN without input from all critical stakeholders and demanded that the government should immediately direct NERC to halt it.

They argued that their findings revealed that all the “obnoxious orders” from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) were a conspiracy to grind the operations of TCN and then liquidate it.

According to them, these are to prepare enough ground to unbundle it for selfish political gains by some few people, adding that the unions would vehemently resist any attempt to cede the infrastructures to cronies for political patronage.

They alleged that the unfortunate scenario playing out in the power sector pointed to the fact that Adelabu administered the sector like a personal estate with no consideration for the welfare and survival of the workers and the sector in general.

They alleged that the deduction of eight per cent of the revenue generated as technical losses from TCN was a political calculation to blackmail the company and its management to make it look inefficient.

They also alleged that the order from NERC on a monthly deduction of N2 billion from the account of TCN was unrealistic and an attempt to run TCN down, portray the management as incompetent and take advantage of the failures for selfish political gains.