NASS to ensure no PHCN worker is retrenched

The National Assembly has said that it will ensure that the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) does not retrench any of its workers in the planned privatisation of the company.Speaking with journalists at the Seventh Annual Ibrahim Rafiu Public Forum, organised by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) of the University of Ilorin, on Wednesday. The deputy chairman, House Committee on Power, Honourable Ibrahim Ebbo, said the House had given the PHCN, as one of the conditions for its privatisation, an instruction not to sack any of its workers.'We've been pragmatic, systematic and gradual on the privatisation of the PHCN. One of the conditions the National Assembly is giving the PHCN is that, if actually it is unbundling, it can, but must not sack a single person, except the staff is not qualified, because there is no way a staff can be recruited by a private investor once such is not qualified,' he said. The lawmaker, who represents Agaie/Lapai Federal Constiuency, said privatisation of power sector would help in ensuring stable power supply in the country, adding that the House appropriated over N200 billion to the power sector this year, 'simply because we want to have an improvement from what we used to have.'He also said that corruption and lack of political will had made it difficult to have a steady power supply in Nigeria, adding that the problem of power is in the generation. 'What the country is generating is a little above 3,000 MegaWatts, which is not enough for even three states in Nigeria.'Also speaking, a member of the House Committee on Appropriation in the House of Representatives who represents Oyun/Ifelodun/Offa Federal Constituency, Hon. Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim, said the House is committed to ensure that the 2012 budget is implemented up to 95 per cent, for better development of the country.
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