The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) organized a mass strike of its members employed by the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC) in the first half of February. This was to protest the sacking of over 900 workers by the KEDC management and demand their reinstatement. The four-day strike resulted in a power outage across Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi states. A fresh strike might be looming by March as KEDC still refuses to reinstate the sacked workers.
Statements from both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and NUEE on the eve of the February strike revealed that KEDC acted “against the rule and process of redundancy” and “without recourse to the provision of the company’s conditions of service.” The NLC urged all its other affiliates in Kaduna state to join the strike with protests in solidarity.
In addition to the demand for reinstatement of the sacked staff, the workers grievance list against the company included, non-implementation of signed agreements between the union and management, non-remittances of five years pension deductions to the workers’ retirement saving accounts and the lack of healthcare provision for workers.
Elsewhere, in Ilorin, people also experienced prolonged blackouts and were unable to access electricity services through the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) where workers embarked on picketing and went on an indefinite strike action due to non-implementation of the new minimum wage, non-remittances of accrued pensions and the dismissal of over 17 members of staffer by the IBEDC management.
Workers in Ogun, Oyo and Osun states, all employees of the IBEDC have also gone on strike or are threatening strike action as they face looming sacks and poor working conditions,
Electricity workers protests and strikes are not new in Nigeria. Workers in the power sector have resisted political and corporate action that threaten their interests even as major changes have swept through the organisational structure of the sector especially in the last two decades.
The first decade of the 21st century was a period of intermittent strikes and protests against the then proposed privatisation and unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and its attendant mass layoffs, poor severance packages, and the general decline of the welfare of workers.
This streak of industrial action continued and intensified in the 2010s as the PHCN was eventually privatised in 2013, with the government relinquishing 60% to 80% ownership of the Distribution and Generating electricity companies (i.e., DISCOs and GENCOs). This led to the termination of employment for a large number of electricity workers. Some estimates placed the amount of disengaged workers at 50-60% of the PHCN workforce.
Prior to the privatisation, negotiations concerning workers’ severance, gratuity and other entitlements were settled with the government. They later claimed to have disbursed about N400 billion to 98% of the former PHCN workforce under various terms of agreements. Some of the workers were retained under the new corporate structure entered into under new and more stringent terms of employment with their new private employers.
However, not all of the workers received their compensation. In 2019, the Punch reported that 200 members of the Association of Disengaged PHCN Staff Forum of Nigeria held a protest in Bauchi state over nonpayment of their outstanding benefits,. These included nonpayment of the 10% equity share allotted to them after privatisation, nonpayment of pension, arrears and incomplete payment of other entitlements. This was six years after the agreements were reached and the workers were laid off.
This same kind of horrid treatment is suffered by the current rank-and-file electricity workers who have reduced social protection and job security compared to the pre-privatisation era. National strikes by NUEE in December 2019 and August 2022 that caused nationwide blackouts were due to grievances over poor workers’ welfare and the nonpayment of outstanding entitlements to former PHCN staff including both those retained and those laid off.
Proponents of privatising PHCN argued that the threat to workers’ welfare and job security would be worth the improvements and efficiency that it would bring to the sector. The most prominent was none other than the man who made it happen, President Goodluck Jonathan. He touted a “revolution in the power sector” and described it as a “positive transformation ….. for the benefit of all Nigerians.”
Twelve years later, lived reality tells a different story. Epileptic power supply, unending nationwide grid collapses and ever increasing electricity tariffs remain the order of the day. According to the World Bank, the share of the population with access to electricity merely increased from 56% to 60%. And, less than a third of rural dwellers have access to electricity.
Increment in power generation is also unimpressive from 3800mw in 2013 to just about 5500mw in 2024. This is not transformative in any sense given that this is not a significant departure from the pre-2013 trend and that power generation intermittently falls below 2013 levels leading to extended blackouts even in urban areas. Also, South Africa with a population that is less than a third of Nigeria’s and a similar GDP saw a 10,000mw net increase of power generation during the same period.
The problem is made worse by very poor regulatory oversight on the consumer facing electricity distribution companies. Since provision from the distribution companies hardly materializes, the people have resorted to making repairs and new installations of their own transformers, electric poles and cables. The distribution companies are content to simply increase tariffs.
NUEE has not only been at the fore of strikes for electricity workers. It has also joined the NLC in general strikes and mass protests. These include the strike declared by the NLC and TUC in November 2023 after Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, was physically assaulted by thugs with the active connivance of police in Imo state. The union also joined the general strike declared by the NLC due to rising cost of living and the demand for an upward review of the national minimum wage, last year. The union however faces ideological impediments that blunts its effectiveness at securing long-term liberation for its members and working-class people as a whole.
Its leadership has internalized the neoliberal orthodoxy. The union accepted the privatization of the power sector, settling for the mass retrenchment of its members, based on government promises of worker welfare payments, despite knowing the history of the government in not keeping to promises.
In addition to this, the conditions of a private sector job market which are cutthroat should have been expected to lead to increased precarity for workers who managed to retain their jobs, as is now become the case. Action should have been taken to forestall putting their members to pasture as was done in the 2010s.
Unlike ASUU, NUEE has thus far failed to couple its demands for improved worker welfare with significant investments or reforms in the electricity sector. That has been left to the investors and government officials, for whom reforms basically serve the interests of capital and not the working masses. This is problematic given that workers in a sector have a better understanding of the systemic problems in the sector and are better positioned to provide solutions which prioritise the people, since they are not simply out for profit maximization like the capitalist employers.
In response to the layoff of 900 workers by the management of KEDC, Wisdom Nwachukwu, the National Vice President (distribution) of NUEE is credited with saying “we do not oppose the pruning down of the workforce, but… that all entitlements be paid.” I bet those members of the workforce whose jobs will be pruned down do oppose the pruning, given that among other things, the cost of living has skyrocketed while entitlements for former PHCN workers have not been paid in full.
While the statement by Nwachukwu might seem callous, the politics of trade unionism in Nigeria has been such that deference is paid to corporate and political authorities. Show too much radicalism, oppose them too much and the heavy hand of state repression would be swung at you for a blow. This is of course intolerable for the privileged trade union bureaucracy. They personally have too much at stake and they have become so closely aligned with the state and corporate bosses in their mediatory role between capital and labour.
The solution to the problem starts with catalysing the raising of the class consciousness of rank-and-file workers. This requires socialist and revolutionary organisations deepening political education within unions; standing with workers in all their struggles, and; pointing towards the broad picture of capitalist exploitation and the need to fight to overthrow this bosses’ class yoke.
We would have to work with the union leadership on a principled basis, but also come out boldly against them and the limitations of their actions when these draw back the class interests of rank-and-file workers. Socialists should remember that the union leadership also needs to maintain credibility with rank and file workers and can be amenable to take progressive action on that score to an extent. Measures adopted would have to be flexible enough to meet the workers where they are and also spread the influence of revolutionary ideas in the workplace and unions.
Workers’ liberation and not just worker welfare must be the end goal for working-class activists. And it should inform even union politics for unions to guarantee sustained improvement in the welfare of their members. The point of departure for us all must be the rejection and opposition to capitalist exploitation of workers, and the neoliberal programs and reforms being used to push this through today in the electricity sector and more generally.
Workers alone are capable of ensuring growth and development within their sectors that will put the interests of people and the planet before the profit motive of a handful of capitalists. Workers must see themselves as their own liberators, because they are. And we must demand that our unions do not allow themselves to be fooled by corporations like the DISCOs. We must fight to win.
by Emmanuel EDOMWONYI
