Federal Government And Labour Congress Disagree On Soldiers' Deployment To PHCN Facilities Nationwide

Soldiers will be deployed any moment from now to join policemen in guarding Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) facilities across the nation.

The deployment, according to sources, is sequel to an advice to the government to enhance security at critical infrastructural facilities as a result of the threat to national security by Boko Haram. But the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is kicking against the deployment, alleging that it was an “impotent” decision by the government to force through its privatisation agenda. Troops from the army, navy and air force are to guard the transmission and generation facilities, the sources said.

The Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, was on Sunday night informed of the Federal Government’s decision to deploy troops to protect the facilities and the workers, according to his Special Adviser, C. Don Adinuba, who added that “the minister has accordingly informed the PHCN Chief Executive, Hussein Labo, and the  CEOs of the 18 PHCN successor companies, as well as stakeholders like the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies and the National Union of Electricity Employees of the development”.

It was also gathered that soldiers, who have been guarding high profile places in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Abuja such as Sheraton and Transcorp Hilton hotels in the wake of the Boko Harem attacks, are now deployed in big churches and mosques during service. But the NLC has called for a removal of soldiers from the corporate headquarters of the PHCN in Abuja and some of its state offices, in the midst of on-going negotiations between the Federal Government and electricity workers in power reform.

“The militarisation of the electricity centres is an impotent and vain attempt by government to force the deregulation of the PHCN. To send armed soldiers to occupy electricity installations is therefore a calculated attempt to stall the negotiations and impose a pre-determined solution that will see the power sector sold as scrap to serving ministers and other cronies of the Federal Government,” NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar said. Omar warned against the mobilisation of troops against Nigerian workers and the civilian populace by either government or politicians, saying the practice portends danger for the survival of democracy in the country.

Labour said it would mobilise Nigerians against the "anti-people policies" of the current administration which included the non-payment of the new minimum wage, insistence on increasing the price of petroleum products and the plan for a deliberate devaluation of the naira. These policies, the NLC said, would complicate matters for a hungry citizenry that has to cope with growing mass unemployment and a non-existent social security system. Omar made these remarks in his opening address at the on-going NLC Harmattan School in Kaduna where he said the congress would spearhead an anti-government protest.

He lamented that four months after the agreement on the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage was signed in July, the government was yet to commence payment even though it had promised to start its implementation in August 2011. Omar also spoke against what he described as an on-going repression of the Nigeria Youth Council and students by security agencies and attempts to suppress their protests against the IMF/World Bank-dictated removal of fuel subsidy.