By KUNLE KALEJAYE

As the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Darius Ishaku, takes over the mantle of leadership from his former boss Prof. Barth Nnaji, workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, have urged the new minister to resolve all labour issues before privatisation is completed.

In an interview with Vanguard, the Lagos State Chairman of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Mr. Adeleke Ibrahim, said the new minister should also address other issues affecting the power sector.

“The Minister of State who is sitting in for the Minister of Power should look at all the issues associated with power holistically and proffer solutions to them.The Federal Government should go ahead with privatisation, but as they do that, they must do the needful for the PHCN staff. We have a condition of service that guides our being employed and it also guides our exit. By law, if I am employed in any government company, I am meant to work for 35years or if I am 60 years, then I can go.

“But neither of these conditions is applicable and they said we should go because they want to wind down the company. That is fair enough but they should pay us what we are entitled to. We are not supposed to retire and die but we are meant to retire and live a good life.We don’t want to retire and live like an AIDS infected persons, as in the case of those who left NITEL, Nigeria Airways and NPA.

The State Chairman urged the federal government to dialogue with PHCN unions in order to settle all labour issues as contained in the condition of service.”This is all that labour is asking for its members who are also Nigerians,” and urged the new minister to be labour friendly and sensitive to the plight of workers.

Commenting on the recent increase in power generation in the country, Ibrahim attributed this to increases in the supply of gas by the Nigerian Gas company, NGC.

“We have two sources of power generation, hydro and thermal. When the water level in the dam is low, we can switch to thermal. The thermal power plants can only function when there is adequate supply of gas. If we don’t receive gas, the thermal plants cannot function.”

Continuity of power programmes

While receiving the mantle of leader from the former minister in Abuja, Ishaku had assured Nigerians of the continuity of the reform programme in the power sector. “At this stage, we can’t afford to move backwards. We need to continue the journey,”he said.

It would be recalled that talks between the Federal Government and Labour unions over outstanding issues in the power sector ended in a deadlock, and it was not certain when the parties will meet again.

The meeting was held at the instance of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, with other representatives of government, the management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the Nigeria Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) in attendance.

President General of the TUC, Mr. Peter Esele, said Labour had shifted a little ground on its demand that electricity workers be paid the 25 per cent contributions to the pension scheme which it had earlier insisted on.