By Adedapo Adesanya
The news that members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) have suspended their nationwide strike action has been received with great excitement.
On Wednesday, electricity workers in Nigeria embarked on an industrial action to press home their demands from federal government and this move plunged residents of Africa’s largest economy into darkness yesterday.
However, the planned 21-day strike called by the union, which only lasted for 24 hours, was a call off when the Minister of Power, Mr Saleh Mamman, announced that government has agreed to the demands of the group.
In a statement released by the General Secretary of NUEE, Mr Joe Ajaero, on Thursday, the union said that following the meeting with the federal government on Wednesday, the strike has been called off.
The industrial action had started because of the failure of the government to sit down with the association for a dialogue on how to resolve some issues in the power sector.
When government was not ready to seat on the same table with the union, the electricity employees stayed out of work and this collapsed the national grid yesterday.
But after the government engaged executives of the union, NUEE released a statement this morning, saying, “Following the agreement reached between NUEE and representatives of government this morning, on all the issues in contention, the union wishes to suspend the industrial action it embarked upon to press home these demands,”
“Consequently, members are urged to return to their duty posts while we monitor the implementation of these agreements. We would not hesitate to resume action if the agreements are not implemented,” the statement warned.
The collapse of the national grid on Wednesday during the strike, which led to shutting down of the services of most of the Distribution Companies (DisCos) across the country.
With the suspension of the industrial action, electricity is expected to be restored later today across the country.
Modupe Gbadeyanka