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You can’t hold Nigerians to ransom, Power Minister tells PHCN workers

The Minister of power, Barth Nnaji on Monday said that the staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) cannot hold the entire nation … Continue reading You can’t hold Nigerians to ransom, Power Minister tells PHCN workers


The Minister of power, Barth Nnaji on Monday said that the staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) cannot hold the entire nation to ransom over their agitations against power sector reforms, adding that anyone who wants to cause problems would be sacked.


The Minister disclosed this while speaking at the signing ceremony of a three-year contract between the federal government and Manitoba Hydro International of Canada, in Abuja.

Mr Nnaji assured the workers that the intention of government is to improve electricity supply in the country and not to lay off any staff.

He said “The management company is coming in with only eight people and there is no way those people would take over the jobs of thousands of PHCN staff. What they are going to do is that these eight people will only be taking over eight senior management positions which the eight people there now would act as deputies.

“While deputising, it is only when they refuse to cooperate with the management that they will be replaced. The system will work as normal; there will be no retrenchments and no reduction in salaries although the entire system will be private sector-driven.”

He pleaded with the union members in PHCN to give peace a chance as union membership does not empower anyone to abuse or hurt another person.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bolanle Onagoruwa, said the arrangement with Manitoba  intends to improve the services in the power sector.

“We have done everything in our power to bring the unions to the table and discuss with them. We have responded to all their demands. We started off by paying them their monetisation which amounted to over N50 billion. They received 50 per cent increase in salary. We have done everything possible to take care of their concerns.

“So, unless a few people who are workers of PHCN, who are not even up to 40,000, are going to take the whole of Nigeria to ransom. over 160 million are crying for power, I think the time has come for us to really understand what we need to do to take Nigeria forward. The unions cannot say we have not met with them; we have had about eight meetings with them in the last 14 months and each time we meet they would come up with new demands.

“Their last concern is the most unreasonable. In terms of severance, we have told them what have been made available for them. We have said that their demands have to conform to pension law. The Pensions Law of 2004 actually makes it clear that the pension is contributory: they pay 7.5 per cent and the federal government pays 7.5 per cent to bring it to 15 per cent. We even agreed that the federal government would pay both their contribution, which they had not paid as their own contribution, but they insist that they want 25 per cent, which is against the law.”

On the contract signing, Ms Onagoruwa said that out of the entire contract the sum of $23million, $2.5million has been paid to Manitoba Hydro of Canada, the management contractor, for which they provided an advance payment cover guarantee and the contract is to run for three years in the first instance.

She said the key objectives of the management contract is sensitisation of the grid, to reduce electricity losses during transmission, provide for the achievement of certain predetermined targets that would improve grid security and general performance, culture change and staff orientation and instituting reward and penalty clauses as incentives for success.

Other objectives, according to her includes to provide efficient management of government investments, to ensure adequate and equitable generation dispatch according to a fair merit order based on sound regulatory principles, to ensure fair market settlements between electricity traders and provide for skills and expertise transfer to Nigerian counterparts who will serve in deputy and other positions to the management staff of the management contractor.

With the signing of the agreement, Ms Onagoruwa said, the management contractor is expected to mobilize and resume on Monday, July 23, 2012, with all the eight key personnel and the associated support staff.