Certain aggrieved electricity workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, irresponsibly shut down the national grid on Wednesday following some alleged disputes with their employers, thus causing blackout across the country for almost 24 hours.
The electricity workers had switched off the nation’s power system in pursuit of some human resource issues that can be addressed without making all Nigerians pay for it, by plunging the nation into darkness.
Power generation crashed below 4,000 megawatts as the National Union of Electricity Employees went on strike to protest against a compulsory promotion interview for principal managers, and unpaid entitlement, among other issues.
The superfluous strike by the workers was allegedly triggered by the directive of the board of the Transmission Company of Nigeria that all principal managers in acting capacity must undergo promotion interviews, a development NUEE said, contravened conditions of service and career progression paths, unilaterally done without relevant stakeholders.
Another grievance of the workers was the perceived “stigmatisation of staff from the office of the Head of Service of the federation from working in other areas in the power sector, and the refusal of the market operator to fund the payment of entitlement of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria former staff as agreed in December 2019 agreement after industrial action by the union.
But following a conciliatory meeting initiated by the Federal Government, the two unions suspended the action for two weeks to enable the government address the issues.
Although we agree that the workers have the right to embark on a strike, they should have considered the security and other implications of their actions.
Their action turned out to have negatively impacted on many sectors of the economy.
They cared less about the effect of their action on business and domestic consumers. They cared less about the impact on productivity. They cared less about those who will die in the hospitals due to the sudden disruption of electricity supply. The workers cared less about the consumers that had made advance payments for this service. Billions of naira went down the drain while their reign of terror lasted.
No matter how just their demands were, that unilateral decision to throw the entire country into total darkness made nonsense of it. Common sense should have dictated that they should have found a way of resolving their issues with their employers without hurting consumers. They did not do this. Shutting power stations and setting off grid collapse is terrorism and economic sabotage.
Data compiled by the various Distribution Companies showed that the loss by the industry alone was about N2.23 billion within the duration of the needless strike.
Using the latest monthly report of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading, the DISCOs were issued an invoice of N266.9 billion between January and April 2022, but could raise only N146.5billion, about 44.9 per cent.
The N266.9 billion quarterly receipts in one month amount to N66.725 billion while it is approximately N2.3 billion daily.
“We also call on the Federal Government to prosecute all those found to have played a role in shutting down the national grid and make sure that they face justice through a fair trial”
With all the DisCos declaring an inability to supply power during the strike, it, therefore, means that there won’t be a remittance of one day, about N2.23 billion by the time NBET finishes up its compilation for the month.
Without mincing words, the shutdown of Nigeria’s national grid by these electricity workers was reckless because they had put the nation’s security at great risk at a time the nation is currently experiencing its worst form of insecurity, including insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
The shutdown amounted to sabotage and serious threat to Nigeria’s security.
Some security facilities that were compromised during the shutdown included the Vigiscope App, Police Situation Room App, all Police Commands Control Rooms, tracking devices that need power, and telephone lines which could have made it impossible for the public to reach the police to report incidents and response to distress calls.
The situation would have been different if the electricity workers had a dispute with the Federal Government. Their alleged problem was with their employers and they extended it to the entire nation.
The union should have considered security, the economy and other implications before handing down the directive to shut down the national grid.
This is a digital age and many operations are tied to power supply where security operatives use power to effectively carry out surveillance of critical infrastructure and many locations in the country.
Consequently, it was preposterous to have shut down the national grid because such surveillance cannot be carried out, thus putting the nation’s security at risk.
No nation can allow such abuse of labour laws to happen without consequences.
It is our point that the unions have chosen the wrong means of expressing their grievances.
What happened on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, was absolutely unacceptable.
The electricity workers union must change its ways and steer clear of tempering with crucial national infrastructure like the national grid from being used to labour politics.
We also call on the Federal Government to prosecute all those found to have played a role in shutting down the national grid and make sure that they face justice through a fair trial.
It is about time that Nigeria must rise to the occasion and change our labour laws to ensure that incidents like shutting down the national grid must not be used as a means of labour bargain.
With the impact of electricity on healthcare, security and well-being, it must be exempted from any forms of strikes.
The electricity workers have committed what can best be described as economic sabotage. What happened is dangerous and must not happen again.
The leaders of these workers should be on trial for terrorism and economic damage.
