by Adeniyi Abdul

Minister of Power Professor Barth Nnaji has called on PHCN workers to cooperate with the government in the ongoing power sector reforms.

Speaking at the signing of a three-year contract for the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria with Manitoba Hydro International of Canada, Nnaji stated that workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria needed to let go of fears of retrenchment as the management company had no plans of replacing them with new staff.

“The management company is coming in with only eight people and there is no way those people would take over the jobs of thousands of PHCN staff,” Nnaji said. “What they are going to do is that these eight people will only be taking over eight senior management positions which the eight people there now would act as deputies.”

He was, however, quick to stress that anyone who refused to cooperate with the new management would be replaced.

“While deputising, it is only when they refuse to cooperate with the management that they will be replaced,” he said. “The system will work as normal, there will be no retrenchments and no reduction in salaries although the entire system will be private sector-driven.”