As Nigeria celebrated Democracy Day last week, organised labour restated the call for the reversal of the privatisation of the power sector.

The United Labour Congress (ULC), reacting to President Muhammad Buhari’s speech on Democracy Day, said the power sector has failed Nigerians.

President of the ULC, Joe Ajaero, said the congress restates for the umpteen times that the power sector privatisation has failed not just Nigerians but Nigeria as a nation.
“It has been a harvest of woes. The United Kingdom has done the needful with their railways on seeing the woes the sector was bringing to the nation, the government has started reversing the privatisation of that sector. Nigerian government should emulate this and do the most sensible thing at this time by mustering the needed courage to reverse the nation’s electricity sector privatisation”, he said.

Ajaero said labour considered it an embarrassing paradox that Nigeria has continued paying the private individuals that captured the DISCOs and GENCOs despite their repaying the nation with darkness.

He said, “Our findings show that the government has paid about N1tr to these private entities and this is most befuddling.

“It is, therefore, better to reverse the sale so that instead of paying these companies, Nigeria can manage its funds for the purposes of generating and delivering power to our homes and organisations.”

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The ULC president stated further that Nigerian workers under the aegis of the ULC were greatly surprised that the President did not find it important to address the myriads of problems confronting them and the nation’s workplaces.

“We had thought that the President will recommit to ensuring that the minimum wage quickly becomes a reality but he never did.

“We had thought that the President would have talked about the Infrastructure deficit, we had hoped that the President would have addressed the crisis of unemployment and the increasing business shut down alas, it did not happen.”

He however called on the government to move towards delivering the benefits of democracy to the people especially Nigerian workers, adding that the country’s testimony of harvests of benefits will be the demonstration of Government’s service and commitment to the people.

He said, “We need the reassurance that the minimum wage will not be negotiated without good faith and will not be truncated under any circumstances.

“These assurance and service to the people will truly make democracy day worth celebrating in our dear nation but as it is now, the political leadership has disappointed us but we know that this government has the will to decide to make a difference today. It can do it and it must do it.”