The Steel and Engineering Workers’ Union of Nigeria Auto and Precision Sector (SEWUN) has urged the Federal Government to scrap the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for failing in the privatisation in automobile sector, which has led to the collapse of many companies.
The union alleged that the dissolution was pertinent as the exercise was a fraud in which auto manufacturing companies were sold to people without expertise or technical skills to either manufacture or assemble vehicles.
National President, SEWUN Auto and Precision Sector, Comrade Elijah Adigun, said this at the union’s yearly industrial relations conference in Ibadan.
Its theme was “Human Resource Management, Conflict Resolution, Industrial Relations and Labour Legislation Issues”’.
According to him, the BPE has done more harm than good to the country. He queried the sale of Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited in Kaduna, Volkswagen Nigeria Limited in Lagos, Annamco in Enugu and Leyland Bussan Motor in Ibadan, among others.
He alleged that the BPE sold the companies to their friends and family members, who, in turn, sold the assets of the companies, left skeletal services, and abandoned the employees.
“In fact, the exercise was a fraud and colossal failure. It is incredible that the Nigerians watched akimbo while those put in place to see to the revitalisation of these companies and create massive jobs connived with officials of the BPE to ripped the country off and milk it dry.
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“Unfortunately, some of these personnel are clamouring to rule Nigeria and we are still watching instead of exposing them all.
“These companies had a combined workforce of more than 20,000 but, today, you can hardly find up to 200 in the companies put together. This is the situation that one of the candidates is telling us that he wants to replicate. Wonderful!
“We are in for a hard time if such mindset wins,” he said.
He urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration not only to recover the companies but also to expose and charge anyone found guilty to court to seek redress for the people.
According to him, this is the legacy the government will leave behind, otherwise, the country will continue to drift.
Adigun lamented how the sector is poorly impacted by the economy, thereby making their job difficult.
He said: “There is no forex to import the needed raw materials for production and, in some cases, cost of procurement and production have tremendously skyrocketed as a result of galloping inflation occasioned by forex challenges.”
“High energy costs, increasing interest rates and other forms of negativities have led to redundancies, particularly in the automobile and precision electrical industries. Some of our cable manufacturing companies are idling away because there is no raw material to effect production.”