The Ministry of Power, Prof. Barth Nwaji, explained that the officials were replaced because of their managerial deficiency.
The revelation came on the heels of a protest by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) on Thursday against the decision of the Federal Government, shutting down the main entrance of the PHCN headquarters in Abuja.
Reacting to the protest in a statement titled, “NUEE Executives Should See Beyond Their Noses,” the Minister of Power, Prof Barth Nnaji’s Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, said the ministry noted the NUEE President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, who was defending the fired officials had once complained that the sacked PHCN official was discriminating against distribution companies.
Ajaero, said Anikwe, had complained that the officer was releasing salaries that failed to harmonise the unprecedented 50 per cent salary increase that the unions extracted from government as one of the conditions to allow privatisation to go on.
The ministry therefore stressed that the union’s incessant complaints about discriminatory payment of the 50 per cent salary increase ultimately led to the officer’s poor management rating.
Anikwe said: “Unfortunately, it is a fact that, sometimes, technical ability does not translate to managerial ability. It is ironic to note that the rabble-rousing antics of Joe Ajaero and his cohorts in NUEE was one of the issues that worked against the person that Ajaero is today shedding crocodile tears over his retirement.
“Or is it possible that Ajaero and the NUEE leadership have forgotten how they ceaselessly dragged this officer to various fora, complaining that he was discriminating against the distribution companies by releasing salaries that failed to harmonise the unprecedented 50 per cent salary increase that the unions extracted from government as one of the conditions to allow privatisation to go on?”
While justifying the ministry’s action, Anikwe recalled that Nigerians are witnesses to two successive explosions which led to system collapse that plunged the nation into darkness in late March.
Continuing, he explained: “The fact that the second explosion occurred within a week of the first, at the same place and time and under the same circumstances, exposes a lack of attention to detail for which someone in charge ought to be called to account.”
The statement reads: “As for the ex-HR Director, members of the general public who have ever complained about PHCN staff abuses - including extortion, embezzlement and corruption - are in the best position to judge the fidelity of the culture of staff discipline that this officer superintended.
“What is disheartening is that it was also not beyond this officer to keep on the payroll for 18 months someone who was supposed to have retired - while senior staff of PHCN lamented their stagnation at one grade level for years because of “no vacancy.”
“We have no intention of engaging Joe Ajaero in a street fight which he clearly relishes. It is laughable that Ajaero would suggest that majority of the officers affected by government’s retirement have nothing to do with power generation, transmission and distribution. PHCN’s sole business is power generation, transmission and distribution; any staff working for the company is engaged in any of the three, either as a core or as a support staff.’’
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