PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has given the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) permission to acquire the Abuja headquarters of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), a source told The Guardian at the weekend.
The commission has therefore commenced talks with the relevant agencies to determine the value of the building.
The source explained further that "the President has approved that we buy the office if we so want. Based on that approval, we have started negotiation with the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELCOM), the custodian of the liabilities of the PHCN to value the building."
The Ministry of Power and the National Union of Electricity Employees are currently enmeshed in a war of words over the occupation of the imposing PHCN corporate headquarters located in Maitama, Abuja. Determined to drive home its instruction, The Guardian learnt that the Ministry of Power had last week Tuesday met with the key agencies under it and directed them to move into the building.
The Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 removes operational and regulatory responsibilities of the electricity industry from the Federal Government. It provides the legal backing for the unbundling of NEPA, formation of successor companies to take over the various functions, assets, liabilities and staff of NEPA. NERC was created from the Act. NERC had since then funded the operation of the PHCN headquarters through a certain charge approved for PHCN as then market operator.
NERC late last year gave indications that it would from this January withdraw the funding support for the PHCN headquarters. The Ministry of Power on its own part has directed that all workers who hitherto worked at the PHCN headquarters be redeployed to other entities under the ministry. PHCN, has, in fact, commenced publication of the new posting of the workers to different corporations, assuring them that all their entitlements would be intact. This move has, however, put the ministry of power at 'daggers-drawn' with the National Union of Electricity Workers.
When The Guardian visited the building last Friday, many of the affected workers were still loitering around the premises, refusing to accept their postings. Some of the workers insisted they were not carried along in the process and might go to court to resolve what seems to be a looming impasse.
Sources said the Ministry of Power had a meeting with the 18 successor companies and some agencies under the ministry on the need to move to the PHCN headquarters and had, indeed, started moving its activities to the building.
The Guardian gathered that NERC had expressed its reservations about moving into the PHCN headquarters 'with those its regulates'. A source hinted how a representative of the regulatory body had reminded the Minister, Prof. Barth Nnaji, of NERC's independence and why it is unwilling to join the ministry and the market operators at the building.
The Guardian