Dominic Igwebike, the acting General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), has criticized the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, for failing to convene a meeting with stakeholders in the SectorSector since his resumption of duty.
NUEE described the Minister’s seeming inaction as a public display of ignorance.
A statement by Igwebike on Monday noted, “It is unfortunate that since he assumed office, the Honourable Minister has not deemed it necessary to reach out to critical Stakeholders in the Power Sector, with a view towards engendering effective collaboration, optimizing productivity and increasing Power output and impeccable Industrial Relations atmosphere required to achieve them”.
NUEE said instead, the Minister has embarked on a Media frenzy to misinform Nigerians and openly threaten workers in the SectorSector.
According to Igwebike, it is on record that the Power Sector had not experienced any System collapse in over 400 days due to the diligent and hard-working members that make up the Workforce.
The statement read, “The Honourable Minister should be guided to the effect that the Power Sector did not experience any System collapse during the two (2) days warning Strike declared across the nation by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which we are affiliated to.
“He should be educated because he cannot decree Strike out of existence. But the Minister has decided to play to the gallery, like some of his predecessors, by promising thousands of megawatts without any Roadmaps to achieving them. You cannot build something on anything.
“To achieve impeccable improvements and rejuvenate the Power Sector, it is expedient that the Federal Government puts round pegs in round holes and not Appointees whose qualifications are Political considerations.
“The Minister should be concerned with outstanding issues which include: the refusal to issue prepaid meters to Nigerians who are being compelled to pay imposed crazy bills; while having less than 4,500mw output of electricity, refusal of most Generation Companies (GenCos) led by Egbin Power Plc who have flagrantly disobeyed all extant Labour laws since taking over in November 2013 and non-payment of 16 months arrears arising from severance; just to mention a few.
“Should the Minister fail to address these issues within two (2) weeks, he should preoccupy himself with recruiting NSA Officials to run the Sector”, he stated.
Kemi Filani reports that the National grid has collapsed three times since the Minister resumed office.