The NLC apparently was reacting to the former Vice President's proposal to privatise the nation's refinery if elected the president of the country.
Nigeria Labour Congress
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday warned that it would not support any privatisation policy that will target the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and threatened to shut down any government that comes with such proposal.
This was even as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, made a surprise appearance at the opening ceremony of the NLC 12th Delegates Conference holding at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, few hours before the event commenced.
Atiku who came in early for the programme scheduled to commence at 10am, however, had to leave perhaps for some other events.
The NLC apparently was reacting to the former Vice President’s proposal to privatise the nation’s refinery if elected the president of the country.
But the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said organised labour is not going to support any policy on privatisation nor sale of the refinery. “We say no to sale of our refinery and want a review of the power sector privatisation,” he said.
He said labour wanted the reversal of power sector privatisation due to what it called chronic failures by the distribution companies (Discos) to deliver quality power supply to Nigerians.
Wabba said, “since the privatisation of electricity distribution, Nigerians are yet to see the fulfilment of promises of efficient service delivery. Instead, the electricity situation has gone worse with chronic failures by Discos to supply prepaid meters, exploitation of Nigerians through estimated billings and reluctance to attend to basic complaints.
“Even with N39 billion bailout funds from government, the supposed private entrepreneurs have failed to turn anything around except maybe their pockets, unfortunately, at the expense of Nigerians. This must stop.
“We call on government to reverse the power sector privatisation because it has failed. Privatisation of public utilities has not proven to be the correct thing to do in most countries, even developed ones.