CEM REPORT | Organised labour unions has jointly rejected the concession of airport and calls the private investors in the power sector scammers.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, President of NLC, in an event jointly organised by the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) during the 2022 International Workers’ Day celebration on Sunday in Abuja,, expressed his displeasure towards the continuous move by some in the corridors of power to concession the airports.
He stated, no reason justifiable exist for government to hand over airports built expressly with public funds to private investors whose sole objective is profit maximisation at public expense.
The stated this standing on the Transaction Adviser’s report, adding that the concessionaires will casualise labour amongst other work deficit.
“Our experience with such moves is that the first thing the concessionaires do is to casualise labour and perpetrate all manner of decent work deficits.
“Private investors who believe that there is gold mine in running airports should build their own airports and recoup their investments afterwards.
“They should stay off profitable airports built at public expense.’’
On power, the labour president said power generation and distribution continues to worsen despite the huge bailout funds provided by the Federal Government to private investors who bought these electricity assets at cheap prices.
Wabba, prayed the Federal Government to scrap and reverse the electricity privatisation exercise taking advantage of the already overdue 5-year review window provided in the Electricity Sector Privatization Reform Act.
“The challenges in our electricity sub-sector persist despite the acclaimed goodness that the power sector privatisation programme promised.
“In spite of humungous bailout support funds fleeced from public coffers to the so-called private investors who bought our electricity assets dirt cheap, our power generation and distribution blues keep getting worse.
“The truth is: we have been badly scammed.’’
He further pressed for a transparent investigation into the power sector privatisation programme.
“We believe this was hijacked by a few entitled Nigerians to corner the commonwealth without thought for value addition.’’
Recall that, the leadership of the National Assembly had also urged the federal government to take back the power firms and manage them or re-privatise them.
