NNPC workers threaten shutdown over management team

Workers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited have warned the new Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, against appointing external persons into top management positions.

The staff who are members of the NNPC Group Executive Council of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria threatened to shut down operations if the GCEO brings in external persons as executive vice presidents, deputy managers, and managers.

In a letter sent to the NNPC Chief Human Resource Officer and acknowledged the same day, the union leaders said there are capable hands to head those management positions within the company.

Referenced, PEN/NUP.GEC.SEC. 04/25/04.2, the letter was titled, ‘Filling of Top Management Positions in NNPC Limited With Externally Recruited Personnel is Unacceptable to PENGASSAN & NUPENG GEC’.

The letter, jointly signed by the PENGASSAN GEC Secretary, Amaoge Chukwudi; his NUPENG counterpart, Paulosa O. Paulosa; the PENGASSAN GEC Chairman, Solomon Orieji; and his NUPENG colleague, Baba Kaumi, congratulated Ojulari and other board members appointed last week by President Bola Tinubu, who sacked former GCEO Mele Kyari and his team.

It read, “We extend our warm congratulations to the newly appointed Group Chief Executive Officer and Board Members of NNPC Limited. We wish them success in their new roles and pray for excellence in their assignments.

“However, we must draw urgent attention to a matter of serious concern to avert avoidable consequences. Based on past experiences, we have observed a recurring trend: whenever a new GCEO is appointed externally, the temptation to fill top management positions with external recruitment rather than promoting staff members from within NNPC Ltd. As a matter of caution, we must state clearly that we cannot accept, accommodate, or support the recruitment of senior and management staff from outside NNPC Limited and that any plan in such direction be stopped immediately.”

According to the union leaders, NNPC houses thousands of professionals across various fields who are also eager to take on higher responsibilities before their retirements.

“NNPC Limited is home to thousands of experienced, competent, and dedicated Nigerian professionals across various fields. These individuals, who include our members, have dedicated quality years to sustaining the legacies of our company and are eager to take on higher responsibilities. Denying them career advancement opportunities and overlooking them in favour of external recruitment is grossly unjust and wasteful, and it will also disrupt the company’s steady progress toward greater profitability and efficiency,” the union leaders asserted.

They described the appointment of non-staff into management positions as an unjust action capable of undermining staff career growth, saying they may not guarantee industrial harmony if the trend is repeated.

The threatened, “We must, therefore, caution against any unjust action that undermines the career growth of deserving staff members of our company. If this warning is ignored, we cannot guarantee the continuation of industrial harmony within NNPC Limited.

“Therefore, this letter serves to put the management and the Board of NNPC Limited on notice that PENGASSAN and NUPENG categorically reject any recruitment or appointment of senior or management staff above the SS6 cadre (specifically within the SS5 to M2 cadre) from outside the organisation. Any attempt to do so will be met with strong resistance, including a total shutdown of operations.”