- Stakeholders must be guided by public interest at all times
Last week, protesters under the aegis of the Citizen Access to Electricity Initiative (CAEI), in conjunction with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), took to Lagos streets to decry the abysmal service delivery of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC)). The organisers also identified “indiscriminate sacking of over 400 workers without any reason” as one of the reasons behind their protest.
Alarmed by the potentially disruptive effect of the protests on their operations, the company went to court seeking to restrain “the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), their agents, officers, privies, representatives or otherwise, whether acting of their own accords or in concert with other bodies, persons or unions, from disrupting or shutting down the operations of the company or barricading the entry and exit points of her corporate headquarters… or any other premises or location where the company carries out commercial and (or) technical operations”.
Also on Wednesday last week, Transmission Company of Nigeria locked out workers from its headquarters in Abuja over outstanding issues relating to severance payment for some workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
For a sector already hobbled by operational and other logistical challenges, there seems to be no end in sight to the many crises facing the sector. In February, it was a storm over the new electricity tariff structure proposed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission under the Multi Year Tariff Order, MYTO. This was at a time of worsening power supply and in the background of the continuing failure of the Discos to issue electricity consumers with meters. The angst provoked by that move had barely quietened down when the grid experienced total shutdown – twice within a fortnight – from an alleged sabotage of gas infrastructure.
Last week’s street protests would appear to have marked a new phase in the struggle to address the worsening crisis and to get the Discos to address consumer concerns.
Nearly three years after the take-over of the entities of the erstwhile PHCN by the private sector, Nigerians are about now wondering how much worse things would have to get before they get better – or whether they ever will.
As it is, the same vices – of corruption and extremely poor service delivery which took the sector to the nadir, and which necessitated the privatisation, appears to have metastasised into new malignant forms, hence the current tragedy of the greater majority of electricity consumers continuing to pay premium for services not delivered.
More than that, far from delivering on their promise to attract new investments, revamp and upgrade the inherited infrastructure and modernise operations, the operators have demonstrated neither the financial muscle nor the technical/managerial capability to inspire confidence in their ability to turn things around.
Unfortunately, while the constant threat of eruptions over unresolved labour issues would ordinarily appear normal, given that the industry is currently in the throes of transition, that these have come at the pains of sabotage and overt threats to the system would suggest that something more fundamental is amiss.
We must state that nothing would be achieved by constant threats of sabotage and disruptions to the operations of the electricity companies. Both would most certainly injure public cause and set the industry back. Yes, the electricity consumer deserves far better than currently served. Surely, they deserve more than the anaemic operators foisted on them.
As for the workers, they deserve fair and equitable settlements in the spirit of collective bargaining and to the extent permissible by the law.
Yet, we are constrained to restate that the parties should be guided by public interest at all times just as the nation’s collective interest should override every other consideration.
In summary, the parties are admonished to refrain from acts capable of further aggravating the current crisis.
