The ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the National Union of Electric Employees (NUEE), has no doubt begun to tell negatively on small business holders in Taraba State.
The industrial action, which DAILY POST observed to have commenced today, has brought to a standstill business activities in the entire axis of the state.
Owners of small scale businesses, who spoke with our state correspondent, said they are not aware that the electricity workers have concluded plans to down their working implements today.
Uchenna Ogechi said, “If I am aware that the workers are embarking on strike today, I would not have gone as far as collecting this job to the extent of even promising to deliver them back to my customer tomorrow.”
Ogechi, who is a fashion designer, lamented, “As you can see, none of my sewing machines is manual, they all use power.
“I have not been able to do anything since morning,” she lamented.
Her sad tales were not different from all the owners of the small scale businesses that were reached out to by the DAILY POST in the state.
The operator of one of the busiest hotels who also aligned his weight to that of Ogechi, said “could you believe that up till this moment that I am talking with you, we have not been able to pump water into our hotel rooms?”
The operator, who craved anonymity, said “I was not disturbed when power went off at about 7:00pm today, not knowing that they had embarked on their strike action.”
Citing the outrageous cost price of diesel, he urged the authorities concerned to as a matter of urgency attend to the demands of the employees “because that is the only way our customers will not distance themselves from our business premises.”
Confirming the ongoing action, the management of the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), in a statement, said “the current loss of supply being experienced across our area of operations is due to the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) today the 17th of August, 2022.”
The management, however, urged customers to be patient stating that “we will continue to monitor the situation in order to restore supply immediately to our customers once the situation is resolved.”
Among the numerous issues which DAILY POST observed to have compelled the workers to down their working implements, include the alleged stigmatization of the staff from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation from work in other areas in the power sector.
Non-payment of December 2019 entitlements of the ex-workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), was also identified as a major reason for the industrial action embarked on by the workers.
