…Insists On His Reinstatement
Yemisi Izuora
The National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, has stepped up campaign to persuade federal government rescind the removal of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Usman Gur Mohammed.
In a statement Mr. Joe Ajaero, General Secretary, has identified several achievements of the former TCN, managing director as it urged immediate reversal of his removal to enable him realise a set of objectives and measures he initiated which if implemented would transform the industry.
In a statement in Lagos, NUEE stated the Mohammed invested massively in many areas, including additional lines and construction of substations nationwide.
According to the union the company increased its wheeling capacity from 500 megawatts, MW in 2017 to the current over 8,100 megawatts, MW, while plans were underway to increase it further from the current 8,100 MW to 20,000 MW by 2022.
Also, NUEE identified several other projects and programmes, targeted at stabilising the national grid for optimum performance and the institution of the culture of prudent management of resources as shown in the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, (TREP), which secured USD 1.661 million loan from multi-lateral financing agencies to fund the TREP projects.
As a master of Local Content, Mohammed made ample use of indigenous engineers to execute TCN’s projects and programmes, thus conserving funds and utilised TCN’s engineers to install and inaugurated over 68 power transformers within a short period of time.
Ajero, also noted that the TCN, then pursued and got 795 TCN containers, which had been at the ports for more than 10 years released and utilised and gave priority to the provision of functional Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), required for effective grid management.
“As a staff of the African Development Bank, ADB, on secondment to TCN, Dr. Mohammed brought tremendous goodwill and support from the international community for the development of Nigeria’s power sector.” noted the statement.
The former MD the union stated took special interest in the welfare of workers, which motivated them to become more productive.
“Dr. Mohammed, who was confirmed the MD/CEO in 2018, thus suggesting that he had a few years ahead of him, boosted the revenue profile of TCN from a mere government transmission agency to a major revenue spinner.
He also protected the national interest of Nigeria against the selfish interest of others, including ‘foreign predators’.” the statement added.