NITEL workers protest divestment of N7.5bn SAT-3 cable
Ufuoma �Daro and Babatunde Oke
Workers of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, under the auspices of the Senior Staff Association of Utilities, Statutory Corporations and Government Companies and National Union of Post and Telecommunication Employees, have declared today (Monday) a day of mourning and prayer across all its offices nationwide, in protest of the on-going plans by the Federal Government to divest SAT-3/WASC/SAFE submarine cable project from NITEL.
According to the General Secretary of SSAUSCGOC, Chief Chubby Nwagabra, in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Sunday, the protesting workers would appear in rags and clothes with black bands.
The workers� grouse is that the stripping NITEL of the SAT-3 cable was an imminent death knell for the company, as it would deprive it of the enormous revenue currently derived from this investment.
It has been reported that the Federal Government plans to set up a special agency to manage the SAT-3 submarine cable, which it considers to be a national resource. The move it was gathered was part of efforts to unbundle NITEL ahead of privatisation.
�It is clearly unreasonable in the name of privatisation to strap an organisation of its viable investments for the benefit of a few and leave the hollow worthless carcass for the rest of Nigerians who the process is intended to benefit,� Nwagbra said.
Earlier in July, SSAUSCGOC had written to President Olusegun Obasanjo, protesting the plans to divest the SAT-3 cable project from NITEL.
