Amidst protest by workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to the federal government over the sack of their principal officers, the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, has justified their sack, describing the protest that shut the entrance to the headquarters’ complex on Thursday as sheer blackmail.
The minister, who spoke through his special adviser on media, Ogbuagu Anikwe yesterday, said the protest organised by members of the National Union Of Electricity Employees (NUEE) was orchestrated not only to malign and disparage the person of the minister but to frustrate his efforts at solving the country’s electricity problem.
Nnaji, who accused the general secretary of NUEE of fanning the embers of discord in the sector, noted that organising protests to defend the sacked officials, having solicited for their removal in the past, amounted to double speak.
“The union's incessant complaints about discriminatory payment of the 50per cent salary increase ultimately led to the officer's poor management rating. As for the second officer, Nigerians are witnesses to two successive explosions which led to system collapse that plunged the nation into darkness late March.
He explained that the fact that the second explosion occurred within a week of the first, at the same place and time and under the same circumstances, exposed lack of attention to detail by the official in charge.
“As for the ex-director of Human Reso? urces, members of the general public who have ever complained about PHCN staff abuses, including extortion, embezzlement and corruption, are in the best position to judge the fidelity of the culture of staff discipline that this officer superintended.
“What is disheartening is that it was also not beyond this officer to keep on the payroll for 18 months, someone who was supposed to have retired, while senior staff of the PHCN lamented their stagnation at one grade level for years because of ‘no vacancy’,” he added.