Oil workers unions on Wednesday shut down the operations of Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) nationwide.
The unions are Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
Workers at the NNPC headquarters in Abuja were stopped from entering their offices.
Attempt to get the union leaders to speak proved abortive as they all declined to speak to the media.
One of the NNPC staff said the union shut the office claiming that they were not consulted on the process of unbundling of the corporation.
“ We heard that our leaders are in a meeting and they will brief us by 4 p.m,’’ she said
There was police presence and most of the workers were seen sitting outside the towers awaiting directives from the union leaders.
NUPENG and PENGASSAN in separate statements on Tuesday said the move to unbundle the corporation was an attempt to provoke the oil and gas workers and cause industrial unrest in the country.
“We condemn the unilateral action of the Minister of State, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, as the decision is not in consonance with the laws establishing the NNPC.
“The unbundling and rebranding of NNPC as announced by the Minister of State is another public policy change which is not consistent with the Act and Laws establishing NNPC and will be resisted by oil and gas workers in the country.
“ NUPENG will not tolerate a situation whereby the unbundled companies will now hide under the cover to start disengaging its workers,’’ it said
Kachikwu on Tuesday announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the unbundling of the corporation into four units.
The units were Upstream Company, Downstream Company, Refinery Company, Gas and Power Company.
According to him, the Upstream Company will now comprise NPDC and the IDSL, while the Downstream Company consists of Retail, NPMC and NPSC,
The Refinery Company, he said, would consist of WRPC, KRPC and PHRC, while the Gas and Power is now made up of NGPTC, NGMC and Gas and Power Investment.
Kachikwu said the Federal Government had approved the appointment of Chief Executives for the companies in person of Bello Rabiu as Chief Executive Officer of the Upstream Company.
Others are: Henry Ikem Obih for Downstream; Anibor Kragha for Refineries and Saidu Mohammed for Gas and Power.
Mr Ohi Alegbe, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, confirmed that the protesting workers also denied him entry into his office.
He said that when the management of the corporation met, it would comment on the development.
The workers were at the gates leading to the NNPC Towers as early as 6.30am to prevent people as well as other workers from entering the towers.
Speaking on the action, acting General Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, said that the move by the government will be tantamount to policy sommersault on the part of the government.
Okugbawa said the unbundling plan will stave off investors from the nation’s oil and gas industry at this time when the nation needs foreign investment most to grow the industry, which currently is the mainstay of the economy.
He explained that the government did not take into consideration the existing law that established the NNPC before planning to unbundle the corporation.
He said, “There is an existing NNPC Act of 1977 that set up the NNPC. This Act has many provisions that deal with structure and operations of the corporation.
“There are many issues such as pensions and transfer of the employees, which are provided for in the NNPC Act of 1977. What will happen to all these provisions of the law?
“For the government to do anything with the current NNPC, the Act must either be repealed or amended to accommodate the planned restructuring. If not done, it will equal to lack of respect for the rule of law on the part of the government.
“The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that is expected to be the legal instrument for the ongoing reforms of the Oil and Gas industry will be meaningless if the Government should introduce plans outside the reforms, The PIB is germane to the development of the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry.
“Above all, the various stakeholders, especially the unions should be involved before any major change is carried out in the organisation and before any unilateral statement capable of heating up the industrial climate is made.”
The PENGASSAN acting General Secretary reiterated the Association’s call for an all-inclusive Stakeholders’ Forum where all issues confronting the industry can be looked into with solutions proffered to them.
