17th August, 2011
The Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has urged the Senate to allow workers contribute to the probe of the power sector in future.
Mr Bede Opara, the SSAEAC president, in a statement in Lagos on Tuesday, said that electricity workers were in the best position to inform any probe committee of fraudulent activities by government agencies.
He said that electricity workers, as stakeholders, had continued to express fears over the privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
According to him, workers are not against the reform of PHCN but against outright privatisation of the company.
“Some workers that were affected in past privatised companies have one story or the other to tell.
“By the time the companies are privatised, Nigerian workers would have suffered untold hardship that nobody can describe,†he said.
Opara said it was regrettable that the same agency which carried out privatisation in 122 companies without adherence to due process, was manipulating policies in the case of PHCN.
“Our worry is that if the PHCN is privatised, it is not only the economy of Nigeria that will be affected, the hardship on Nigerians will be enormous,†he said.
He also said that if what happened in the banks had happened in the electricity sector, the entire industry would have gone down before government would be able to rescue them.
He also commended the Senate Committee on Privatisation for their decision to investigate the privatisation of public enterprises by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to date.
He noted that the exercise had exposed more on the PHCN because the past exercise was fraudulently carried out to enrich some public office holders.
Opara advised the government to look into the probe properly, to ensure that Nigerians got the best out of such exercise.