Blackout as national grid collapses again over strike by electricity workers

.Union bows to pressure, suspends nationwide strike for two weeks

.Ngige angry with striking employees

AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja and COSMAS CHUKWU, Enugu

The national electricity grid on Wednesday morning collapsed again following a reduction in production output  from over 4,000 megawatts (MW) to 762MW as members of the  National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE)

began strike to protest a compulsory promotion interview for principal managers, among other issues by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN

According to data from the Independent System Operation (ISO), a section of TCN, power generation on the grid was 4,149.40MW as of 6am from 21 power plants on Wednesday but drastically dropped to 1,635MW from 17 plants.

By 12 noon, the grid had crashed to 1,246.40MW as three power plants went off, and by 1pm, the grid dropped to 762.30MW with just 13 plants active. The peak generation achieved on Tuesday was 4,829MW.

It would be recalled that the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) had protested on Tuesday, blocking the premises of TCN in Maitama in Abuja after it issued a notice of the strike earlier, warning that it would fully commence the industrial action on Wednesday.

According to Joe Ajaero, the union’s general secretary,  in the notice dated 15th August 2022, the workers protested against a directive by “the TCN Board that all Principal Managers in acting capacity going to Assistant General Managers, must appear for a promotion interview.

This directive he said is  in contravention of “our conditions of service and Career Progression Paths, and unilaterally done without the relevant stakeholders.”

It also alleged stigmatization of staff from the office of the Head of Serve of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector, as well as refusal of the Market operator at TCN to fund the payment of entitlement of ex-PHCN staff as agreed in December 2019.

Responding to the notice the same day, the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba, noted the complaints and appealed to the union for time to resolve the issues.

“May we appeal to your great union to allow us two weeks from the date of this letter to address the issues and come up with proposals towards acceptable resolution of all issues,” he said.

Besides, the Managing Director of TCN, Engr. Sule Abdulaziz, wrote a letter on 15th August, 2022 to NUEE stating that, “We are pleased to inform you that management has suspended the said proposed interview for those on the acting appointment of assistant general managers and general managers while we conclude the discussion with the board”.

On the other issues such as circular from the office of Head of Service on stigmatization of the defunct PHCN staff and payment of entitlements of ex-PHCN staff by the Market Operator, Abdulaziz said the management had contacted the Minister of Power, Engr. Abubakar D. Aliyu, for further actions.

“In view of this development, we appeal to your union to stay in action,” he pleaded.

However, NUEE on 16th August, 2022, replied the minister and the MD of TCN, insisting that the protest will continue. The union faulted the authorities for not resolving the promotion issues for three years and was not convinced about the issues regarding stigmatization at the Office of the Head of Service.

“On the stigmatization of staff from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector, we are not sure you are speaking for the Head of Service after memos addressed to that office several months ago have gone without any acknowledgement,” the letter stated.

On issues relating to the TCN board, NUEE insisted on hearing from the board and not through the TCN management or the junior minister’s office.

“Premised on the foregoing, we may be constrained to continue with this action by Wednesday 17th August 2022 with a total withdrawal of services.

However, the union is still open to decisive discussions with relevant actors with a view to proffering solutions to the issues raised and averting the total collapse of the sector,” Ajaero stated in the letter.

Meanwhile, there have outages in Abuja and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) issued a notice telling customers that it was due to the withdrawal of services by TCN workers who transmit bulk power from plants to DisCos’ stations.

Ikeja DisCo in Lagos also issued a notice saying the nationwide picketing affected most of its stations and disrupted power  supply

Similarly, electricity workers have bowed to pressure and suspended their nationwide strike for two weeks

Their strike led to total blackout in different parts of the country on Wednesday.

The workers under the joint umbrella of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEC) however agreed to suspend the industrial action following the intervention of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige.

Ngige had summoned an emergency conciliation meeting between the Federal Government and the workers on Wednesday to resolve the issues that precipitated the industrial action.

The issues are the alleged contravention of their Conditions of Service and Career Progression, stigmatisation of electricity staff by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and refusal of the market operators to fund the payment of entitlements of ex-PHCN staff as agreed in the December 2019 agreement.

Addressing newsmen  after the meeting, which lasted about four hours, the Secretary General of NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said they have been asked to suspend their strike action.

Ajaero expressed hope that the government would act in good faith on the issues in dispute which have lingered for years, to a very dangerous point.

He said they would take a pause on the industrial action and wait for two weeks as agreed in the meeting for the government to address their grievances.

Also, the President of SSAEC, Comrade Chika Ben assured the nation that the matter would be nipped in the bud before it escalates, adding that there would be no further blackout in any part of the country.

On the outcome of the meeting, Ngige said after exhaustive deliberations on the issues in dispute, they agreed to constitute a bipartite committee to look into the grievances of the electricity workers and report back in two weeks.

According to him, the members of the bipartite committee include the Minister of State for Power, Jeddy Agba (Chairman), Permanent Secretary, Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Permanent Secretary, General Services, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, representative of BPE and two representatives from NUEE and SSAEC.

He said the committee has two weeks to report back to the whole house.

He said the meeting afforded them opportunity to thrash out all the issues in dispute, adding that his ministry has apprehended the dispute.

In attendance at the meeting were the Minister of State, Power, Prince Jeddy Agba, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ms. Daju Kachollom, Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz and the Chairman of TCN Board , Imamuddeen Talba.

Also represented were the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

Also, Dr Ngige, has criticised the strike embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE)  following an emergency meeting between the union, government and other stakeholders.

This as the electricity workers rose from the meeting and assured Nigerians that electricity supply would be restored across the country.

Speaking, Chika Ben, President General, Association of Senior Staff of Electricity and Allied Workers expressed satisfaction with what he described as the maturity way the minister of labour and employment handled the matter, stating that the leadership of the union will report back to the union.

He further assured that the union will not put Nigerians in darkness, even as he said they will be back to the negotiation table in two weeks time.

The organised labour had directed workers in the Power sector to down tools from Wednesday. This followed pending labour issues with the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.

This is coming barely one month after the national grid collapsed, a development that put the country into total blackout that caused huge damage to preserved dairies and other perishable food stuffs.

Meanwhile,

sequel to  the strike  embarked upon by the NUEE, operations across the franchise area of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) have been disrupted.

According Emeka Eze, Head of Communications,  EEDC, in a message made available to journalists in Enugu, power supply may remain disrupted until the issue is resolved.

The statement reads: “As a result of this development all our feeders are out of supply and this has affected supply to our esteemed customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States.

“Consultations are ongoing among critical stakeholders in the power sector to address this issue and possibly restore supply.

*”The management of EEDC hereby encourage customers and neighbourhood associations to be vigilant and protect the electrical installations within their environment against elements who might take advantage of this outage to vandalise these installations*.”

“We therefore appeal for continued patience and understanding while this is resolved”.