The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has offered reasons why it joined the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, in shutting down the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation nationwide.
PENGASSAN, speaking through its acting General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, said the move by the government to unbundle the NNPC as announced by the Minister of Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, will be tantamount to policy summersault on the part of the government.
Okugbawa said the unbundling plan, announced on Tuesday, will stave off investors from the nation’s oil and gas industry at this time when the nation needed foreign investment the 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 For the government to do anything with the current NNPC, the Act must either be repealed or amended to accommodate the planned restructuring.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 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.
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