FG approves 25% pay-off for electricity workers

After protracted negotiations, electricity workers have sealed a deal with the Federal Government to end the lingering crisis over their pension payout.

In an agreement reached at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Federal Government agreed to pay the workers’ pension that had accrued by June 30, 2007 on the basis of 25 per cent of their annual salaries. However, the payment will be based on the new conditions of service that came into effect in 2010, while pension accruals from July 1, 2007 will be based on 15 per cent of annual salaries as contained in the Pension Reform Act, 2004.

The workers had been at loggerheads with the Federal Government since 2010 over what their terminal benefits should be.

While the former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, had insisted that the workers should be paid on the basis of the 2004 PRA, the workers had insisted that they must be paid according to their Superannuation Fund, which made them to be entitled to 25 per cent.

Present at the meeting were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu; Minister of State for Power, Mrs. Zainab Kuchi; President, Trade Union Congress, Mr. Peter Esele; and Secretary General, National Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joseph Ajearo.

Anyim signed the agreement on behalf of the Federal Government, while Esele and Ajearo signed on behalf of the workers.

President Jonathan exonerates Prof. Nnaji

President Goodluck Jonathan, at a town hall meeting in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State, said that he accepted Nnaji's resignation despite his accomplishment in the power sector during his short tenure to protect the privatization process. In his first comment on the matter, the president said that the former minister only resigned in order to give credibility to the privatization of the power sector. The president said before an assemblage of Anambra elite and the entire South-east, that he was seizing the opportunity of being in their midst to exonerate the minister.

According to the President, “I have to make it clear that Professor Nnaji is a very competent professor; he is a product of the World Bank, a professor of engineering. He is very competent in the sector but we agree that there are expectations and that is what happens all over the world”.

Prof. Nnaji, in an earlier statement had rebutted reports that he was forced out of government, saying that he voluntarily resigned his position to protect his integrity. He said he voluntarily resigned to protect his integrity, which he stated had come under scurrilous attacks recently by "powerful vested interests" that were hell bent on destroying all he had worked for over the years.

Nnaji: Powerful interests forced me out

Following his sudden exit from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet, ex-Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, has said that he resigned because some “powerful vested interests” were bent on tarnishing his image. He added that he left the cabinet in order to save the Jonathan administration from the “spill over” of the attacks by the “powerful vested interests.”

His reaction was contained in a statement by his spokesman, Ogbuagu Anikwe, and it coincided with  a declaration   by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, that   Nnaji’s exit would reinforce the credibility of the Federal Government’s reforms in the power sector.

The former minister said he  was proud  that he left at  a time  that  power generation and supply  had had improved. According to him, “I feel particularly proud of the fact that my exit comes at a time that the administration has been able to generate and supply an unprecedented quantum of steady, reliable electric power in the history of our nation. I am confident enough to allow history and the Nigerian people to judge my performance on the task that I accepted from the President.”

He denied having conflict of interest in his handling of the power sector reform saying that he resigned his directorship of all companies that he had interest in and put his shares in those companies in a Blind Trust.

Nnaji said  his resignation had given him the opportunity to go back to his integrated power projects “which have been designed to accelerate the development of the nation.” He paid tribute to the staff of the Ministry of Power, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and other agencies for their “dedication to duty, hard work, patriotism and commitment to the common good which have, in spite of all odds, completely moved the power sector in a new direction to the benefit of all our people.

But Maku, in apparent reaction to fears by stakeholders that Nnaji’s resignation would slow down the power privatization process, said government was determined to ensure its success.

Controversies, Scandals trail the exit of Nnaji as Power Minister

It is believed that Prof. Nnaji must have been pressured into resigning as the Minister of Power and from the Federal Executive Council by the Presidency because of fears that the issue of conflict of interest could damage the credibility of the privatization process, which has local and foreign investors as bidders.

It was gathered that it was when it was established that Nnaji had interest in two firms, Skipper Nigeria Limited and Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited that the National Council on Privatization chaired by Vice- President Namadi Sambo, decided to cancel the technical bid evaluation process conducted for the two firms.

There was speculation that the NCP had been silent on the bidders that were prequalified for the Afam Power Station because of the conflict of interest that had arisen during the privatization process. Nnaji further notified the NCP that Geometric Power had a minority stake in Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which had submitted technical and financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company Limited on July 31. He also reportedly informed the council that owing to his position, he had notified President Jonathan of his company’s bid for Enugu Distribution Company, and brought it to their attention that although he had an interest in Geometric Power, he had resigned from its board and transferred his shares to a blind trust.

Following this disclosure, Nnaji was said to have excused himself from the consideration of the report of the technical bids. Having been informed of Nnaji’s direct and indirect interest in two companies being privatized, the report said the council decided to cancel the technical evaluation that had been conducted for Afam and disbanded the evaluation team.

Also, the former minister had also been at the receiving end of the war declared by workers of the PHCN. The workers had opened a can of worms on some financial transactions allegedly carried out by Nnaji which reportedly drained the purse of PHCN. They had given the embattled minister a seven-day ultimatum to explain what he did with the money running into millions of naira which they claimed was withdrawn from the firm’s coffer.

Vice-President of the National Union of Electricity Workers Employees, Mr. Etete Ntukuben, last Friday, called for a probe, not just of the PHCN superannuation account, but the entire account of the PHCN. Ntukuben said that investigators should be brought in to take a critical look at the withdrawals by the former minister from the account of the PHCN.

Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji, resigns

Prof Bath Nnaji has resigned as the Minister of Power. Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the resignation of the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, even though the reason for his resignation was not known but it may have been due to intrigues that have overshadowed the Federal Government’s bid to privatize the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Discussions between government and representatives of PHCN workers in Abuja were deadlocked again. The meeting was at the instance of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu; and the Nigeria Labour Congress.

President Jonathan, however, thanked Prof. Nnaji for his services to the nation under the present administration and wishes him well in his future endeavors.