Mujeeb Shokunbi
Sixty
per cent of the work force of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria got
letters disengaging them from the services of the organisation,
following the final process of its privatisation.
But for each of those individuals who
lost their jobs after the new owners of PHCN took over on November 1,
2013, the implication means different things.
“Following the finalisation of the
negotiations with PHCN Labour Union on the settlement of terminal
benefits and subsequent payment of agreed severance entitlements to your
account, you are hereby disengaged from service of the company with
effect from October 31, 2013,” a letter that crushed the hope of
31-year-old Mujeeb Shokunbi, reads in part.
When Shokunbi read the last sentence of
the letter dated October 21, 2013, he cried out in agony; like the same
physical agony he had had to contend with since 2011 when he fell down
from a PHCN pole and became quadriplegic.
Shokunbi slouched in the front seat of the car in which he sat when he spoke with our correspondent.
The fair-complexioned young man sweated.
He could only turn his head here and there as he spoke with heavy heart.
His disused thin limbs hung limply from his body, evidence that he had
not been able to use them in the last two and half years years.
Shokunbi’s journey to his present
quadriplegic state started with a simple letter that masqueraded as an
elevation to better life; an appointment letter with PHCN dated June 1,
2006.
“I have the pleasure of informing you of
the confirmation of your appointment with this company with effect from
June 1, 2006,” the letter read in part. And indeed it was also a great
pleasure for Shokunbi to receive this letter.
But June 2, 2011, the day he clocked five years in the employ of PHCN, was to become Shokunbi’s worst day on earth.
While at work on a high tension pole at
Orile Bus Stop in Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos State,
Shokunbi fell down and sustained a spinal cord injury.
He said, “I was on the pole with my
immediate supervisor. I worked as a lines man with PHCN. I lay high
tension cables. He had initially joined me on the pole to give me a
plier. But I became thirsty later and he went down to get me water.
“Before my supervisor arrived, I had
finished the work. I then made my way down the ladder. I suddenly
slipped and fell down. I woke up hours later in a hospital. I could
barely understand what was happening because I could not move my body.”
He said when he woke up, he was told he
had been out for some hours. But when he attempted to move his arms and
legs, they failed him.
The following day, Friday, June 3, 2011, he was taken to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos where he was admitted.
He told Saturday PUNCH he was
taken for an MRI at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. The
radiologist report revealed something very frightening for the family
when it was interpreted to them.
“There is straightening with
mal-alignment of the cervical spine. Retrolisthesis (displacement of
vertebrae) of C4 below C3 is noted. There is indentation of the theca
sac with comprehension of the spinal cord, as well as spinal stenosis
(abnormal narrowing) at that level,” the report said.
Shokunbi said he was discharged on
September 7, 2011 with instruction that he be brought in regularly for
physiotherapy. He has since been confined to a wheelchair.
He said all the cost of his treatment
during his admission was paid by PHCN, who according to him, promised
that it would facilitate his being taken for treatment abroad.
He was promised by officials of PHCN that he would be adequately taken care of.
He said, “I was told I would be flown
abroad for treatment but it was not a written agreement. They told me
that anytime I needed to buy anything, I should use my own money and
later send the receipt to them.
“The present Assistant General Manager, Medical Service, Eko Zone, Dr. Adeogun, promised that I would be taken abroad.
“I had begged them not to abandon me to
my plight but they kept promising me that I would be taken care of. But
last year, their attitude made me realise I would only be abandoned like
a waste product. Then, it would take them months before they paid back
after I had submitted accumulated receipts of treatment to them.
“After I was disengaged following the
takeover of PHCN on November 1, I went to Dr. Adeogun to ask how my
bills would be paid, she said they would pay my last bill but not all
the others that had accumulated before. She said since I had been
disengaged, I was not entitled to any PHCN’s benefit.”
Shokunbi is a sad man; one that seems to think that all hope is lost.
He explained that he rued the day he got a job with PHCN.
“I got into that company as a healthy,
able-bodied man and I have been disengaged without any form of
compensation for the injury I sustained on duty,” he said.
For Shokunbi’s mother, Fausat, her son’s injury had changed her life for the worse.
She said she was a trader but had sold everything in her shop to take care of her son.
Fausat said, “I stopped selling more than
two years ago. I had to employ private physiotherapists to work with
him at home. That’s the reason life is being restored to his two arms
gradually. Before, he could not lift any of his limbs.
“My son cannot stand alone; I have to lift him to do everything he has to do.
“Eating is even very hard for us right now. We sold every valuable thing we had, including lands to ensure he stays alive.
“When he fell from that pole, his
superiors told me in the hospital that he would be well taken care of. I
never had a misgiving about his work. I was always happy that my son
had a job and could fend for himself.
“But right now, it has got to a stage
that PHCN officials were asking if I had no family that could help
because I kept going to PHCN office to disturb them about my son’s
plight.”
She said the water bed that was
prescribed for her son’s use had worn to an irreparable stage after
numerous attempts to patch it. Even though it was supposed to be used
for one year, Fausat said her son had used it since he was discharged in
2011.
She said even if suing PHCN was the only
option left for her, there was no way she could afford a lawyer because
the family had been impoverished as a result of Shokunbi’s injury.
When Saturday PUNCH contacted the
Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, Eko Electricity Distribution
Company, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, on the phone, he said he was not aware of
the case but promised to find out about it.
Later, when this correspondent visited
him at the power company headquarters in Marina, he explained that the
power company was no longer in a position to treat Shokunbi’s case.
Idemudia said, “Nobody will hear about
that young man’s case and not take pity on him, but the truth is the new
owners of PHCN cannot handle his case because the company’s liabilities
have been transferred to Nigeria Electricity Liability Management
Company.
“NEMCO is the one that has to handle the
case. But our managing director has written a letter to NEMCO in Abuja
about the case and I cannot say when a response will come from them.”
However, a phone number he provided,
purportedly belonging to the Managing Director of NEMCO, was answered by
an individual, who promised to inform the MD and get back.
But subsequent calls placed to him went unanswered.
However, Shokunbi said concerned stakeholders should come to his help.
“I cannot continue to live like this,” he lamented.
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