Workers’ Strike: NUEE Goes Spiritual

Members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) have embarked on a nationwide fasting and prayers to draw God’s attention to the planned priivatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), which they claim, may subject them to untold hardship.

According to union, the privatisation of the power company will end up the same way of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), which was forced to fold up, and consequently subjected its staff to years of suffering and hardship.

Visits to various offices of PHCN in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, revealed that visitors and customers were being turned back from the company’s gates as a result of the exercise.

Some PHCN staff, who spoke to The Tide, said “workers have decided to go spiritual to bring a lasting solution to the problem at stake”.

Chairman, Rivers/Bayelsa chapter of the union, Comrade Banigo, who confirmed the programme, said the fasting and prayer session was a nationwide event intended to invoke the attention of the supernatural being to the issue.

Banigo, who recently led a protest on the streets of Port Harcourt, explained that the union remains opposed to the privatisation of PHCN, particularly the way it was being approached without addressing some lingering issues in contention.

He maintained that from all indications, the planned strike by workers was inevitable, unless the issues of monitisation, casualization, unpaid arrears and fears of job insecurity are properly addressed.        

Chris Oluoh