By Victor Ahiuma-Young
WORKERS of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, have  vowed to resist the media report credited to Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, that PHCN would soon wind down its operations, describing such move to dismantle the company as  unconstitutional and illegal.

PHCN

Under the umbrella of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, the workers in a statement through their counsel, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, argued that the “Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, imposed a duty on the Federal Government to manage and operate the main sector of the economy, which undeniably includes the power sector.”

The statement titled: “Re: PHCN to wind down soon- Electricity workers will resist unconstitutional dismantling of PHCN.”, read in part: “ We have the instructions of the Union, our client, to state categorically that its members will resist the unconstitutional attempt to dismantle PHCN as the basic law of this country, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, imposes a duty on the Federal Government to manage and operate the main sector of the economy which undeniably includes the power sector.

It beggars belief that the government which insists that it would do nothing to violate the rule of law could seek to trample on clear wordings of the Constitution. Our client is particularly irked that rather than deal with all the outstanding labour issues, the government and its agents are celebrating the illegal cannibalisation of PHCN.

“We have the instruction of the union to advise those investors who are said to have shown renewed interest in the sale of PHCN to beware and await the resolution of all the pending labour issues which are not reducible, as some mischievously do, which also involves the payment of emolument of workers. The union will do everything within its power to resist vehemently the illegality. Everyone has been warned.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Our client would like to reassure members of the public that it is not averse to competition in the power sector. If government licenses power providers to bring in their capital and machinery to compete with PHCN, certainly this would be most welcomed. That was what happened in the telecommunications sector.

The comparison made with the telecommunications sector is therefore inapt and wicked.  What the union is opposed to is the sale of the collective wealth of Nigerians to cronies of connected men and women in the name of privatisation. That is immoral and illegal. Nigerians have a duty to resist it and it will sure be resisted.”