The looming national blackout was averted yesterday at the 11th hour following the assent by the federal government to meet all the demands of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) and National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).
LEADERSHIP gathered the electricity workers had threaten to down tools today in order to force federal government and the management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to pay their N57 billion accrued arrears of monetisation, systematic payment of a balance of 150% salary increase, regularisation of casual staff who have been adding value to the system, among other demands.
The workers had rejected the N5 billion announced by the federal government on Friday saying that it will not make them call off the indefinite strike since all their demands signed in the tripartite agreement reached between the government, the management of PHCN and the workers in 2003 have not be fulfilled.
But in yesterday’s meeting with the minister of state for power, Nuhu Somo Wya, the government agreed to meet their demands. The SSAEAC’s national president, Engineer Bede Opara, told our correspondent yesterday late in the night that the federal government had agreed to pay all their N57 billion entitlements in 30 days.
In a press conference yesterday morning, he had said, “The workers will down tools today (Monday) because if we say we should call off the strike because of N5 billion our members will not take us seriously because the money cannot pay any grade level of workers in the sector. And that would cause more problems for the union leaders than the problems on ground, and so if government comes up with more commitments, we would then know what to tell our members.
“If we have seen serious commitment on the side of government or the management regarding all the issues discussed in the agreement signed since 2003, we would have considered our stand but the point is that we are losing credibility on the side of our members as a result of the level of tolerance we have shown and with the ways things are going, we will not be able to explain to our members not to take their destiny in their hands.”
Also, the NUEE’s general secretary, Comrade Joe Ajaero, argued that the workers in the sectors had given government and management of PHCN over seven years to carry out agreement jointly signed with workers, and that the government bluntly refused to honour the agreement. He said that the workers will down tools today.
He said: “On our part, we have tried. We first of all gave another one week; no payment was made and we gave another three weeks, nothing happened. Based on that we gave another 14 days ultimatum that would expire this weekend and, to our chagrin, the minister of state, power, announced to Nigerians on Friday that government had released N5 billion for monetisation.
“And by his account, the amount involved in monetisation is N57 billion and we have tried to review this situation. The announcement of N5 billion was not a product of our arrangement and we have checked our stations; N5 billion cannot pay any zone, the money cannot pay any salary grade and we would not know why he made such announcement, and N5 billion does not constitute even five per cent of the amount involved. And so we said that was cheap blackmail to say he has released money.
“We are equally aware that other issues of balance of 137% were not even addressed and the issue of casualisation of over 10,000 Nigerians that have worked in the sector, some six years and some seven years with salaries ranging from N5,000 to N10, 0000 and most of them graduates, was not addressed. And we felt that there was need to tell Nigerians the reasons why we have to down tools because, from the look of things, since government has not paid any commitments to resolving these issues, our action of downing tools by today (Monday) would still take place.”
The minister of state for power, Wya, on Friday in Abuja announced the release of N5 billion by the federal government as part-payment of electricity workers’ monetisation arrears.
The minister also disclosed that the federal government had appointed consultants to carry out the verification of monetisation claims forwarded by PHCN and that adequate arrangements had been made in the supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly last week to address the workers’ demands.
While appealing to the leadership of the electricity workers to shelve the planned strike in order to create a conducive atmosphere for the payment to be made to their members, the minister however said: “The action by the government was an indication of its concern for the welfare of the workers, particularly now that power is treated as the number one priority of the federal government.”