|
|
Nigeria: Energy Staff Charge Authorities On Power Reforms
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Vanguard (Lagos)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Gabriel Enogholase
Lagos
Employees in the Energy sector have called for greater commitment of the authorities to the reform of the power sector just as they want the government to evolve a conscience master plan for the sector.
General Secretary of the National Union of Elecetricity Employees, Mr. Joe Ajaero, told newsmen in Benin yesterday that while the probe of the power sector by the House of Representatives was commendable, he however said that the probe must go beyond media posturing to restore sanity to the power sector.
The General Secretary was in the Edo State capital where the National Executive Council of NUEE were hosted by the Benin zone of the union.
According to the labour leader, the House of Representatives should ask some petinent questions such as "is it probe that we just want?
Or are we thinking of the way forward? Are they thinking of getting the culprits to pay back what they have taken? Are they going to compel the contractors to complete the contracts awarded to them. These are the issues.
"Or are we thinking of having judicial committees of inquiry to get all the people involved to cough up all that they have stolen?"
"It appears we are only trying to reduce it to a TV show, as the Ndudi Elumelu committee is trying to reduce it to. I think that is going to be an irony because that is not the first time that we are going into a probe."
While insisting that the power problem cannot be solved in isolation of other national tragedies, Ajaero added "we have suffered from the problem of governance from independence. The rail system is not working. The education system in the country is not working. If we must fix the power sector, there must be commitment on the part of the leadership. Commitment in the sense that we should not pay lip service," he said.
He blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo eight years of fighting with electricity workers who were insisting that the power plants should not be sold to enemies of the state just as he recommended that any effort aimed at solving the problem of the power sector should connect with power generation, which must progressively grow from its present low level of 3,000 megawatts.
Ajaero said government must not shy away from funding power generation for therein lay the solution to the problem in the sector adding that power gerenation sources must be diversified to include the use of coal, and water sources in addition to the current gas-based power plants.
"I want to tell you that Mambila and Zungeru hydro stations would have given you more megawatts than the five stations built by Obasanjo in the last eight years," he said.
The Benin Zonal Chairman of the NUEE, Mr. G.O. Idahosa, used the opportunity of the occasion to appeal to the management of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria to implement the numerous salary increases negotiated with the union.
|
He also said the managment must also regularise the appointments of all personnel that have been retained on casual basis, and convert to their rightful grade levels of staff who have acquired the relevant educational qualifications.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
