National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) has called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to urge striking workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to resume dialogue with the Federal Government.
In a statement yesterday by its National President, Dauda Muhammed, NANS, while frowning “at the use of force by the government as occasioned by the deployment of soldiers to PHCN offices,” beseeched the electricity workers to give room for further dialogue rather than hold the system hostage.
Expressing confidence in the privatisation of the sector, NANS said: “We strongly believe that the ongoing effort at unbundling the PHCN is surely in the overall interest of Nigerians and we are of the opinion that every well-meaning Nigerian must support the effort of the minister of power in ensuring that the power sector is genuinely transformed from its present state of inefficiency.
The inefficiency of the Nigerian energy sector as characterised by the non-performance of the PHCN as presently constituted is in no little way hindering our quest for national development, which is increasingly impacting negatively on the rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
“Our experience in the Nigerian Telecommunication sector is enough proof to justify the need for certain institutions of government to be unbundled in the interest of efficiency and service delivery, which is the main objective of their existence.”
NANS, which observed that “the disagreement between the government and the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) is becoming dirtier,” called on the “leadership of the NLC to prevail on the PHCN striking workers to resume dialogue with the government in order to ensure an amicable resolution of the dispute, which like we have stated above is not in the overwhelming interest of Nigerians.”