The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has threatened to shut down any government that has the intention if privatising the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
This formed part of the remarks at the opening ceremony of the NLC 12th Delegates Conference held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, on Tuesday.
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has expressed his intention to privatise NNPC, if he is elected as president.
However, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President, stressed that organised labour union would not support any policy on privatisation or sale of the refinery.
“We say no to the sale of our refinery and want a review of the power sector privatisation,” he said.
Wabba also advocated for the reversal of power sector privatisation, due to what he 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 N39billion 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 the government to reverse the power sector privatisation because it has failed. The privatisation of public utilities has not proven to be the correct thing to do in most countries, even developed ones.”
