*Nigeria Labour Congress.
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
04 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The two major unions in the oil and gas sector, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, on Friday rejected plans by the Federal government to unbundle the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, into 30 companies.
The two unions vowed to resist the move to unbundle the Corporation, saying it is an attempt to cause an industrial crisis in the nation’s oil and gas industry.
Reacting to the development, the PENGASSAN’s Spokesman, Mr. Emmanuel Ojugbana told reporters that the union was not in support of the split.
Ojugbana further stated that the Act establishing the NNPC must be repealed before the company could be unbundled successfully.
He also charged that it was unfortunate that the Federal government would contemplate such move, adding that if such a decision or plan should be taken, the two unions in the sector were supposed to be carried along.
He said that the union was not carried along in the decision to unbundle the company into 30 sub-sectors, adding that PENGASSAN was holding a meeting to take action on the issue.
Similarly, NUPENG’s President, Mr. Igwe Achese, said that the government needed a law to repeal the existing Act which established the NNPC to institute the changes.
Achese said that the union would not accept the decision without knowing how the manpower that would operate in the 30 companies would be managed.
“We will resist the move to unbundle the company because we see it as an attempt to cause an industrial crisis.
“Our fear is that the NNPC can start disengaging workers as a result of this plan,” the union leader said.
He, therefore, called for a stakeholders’ meeting that would involve NUPENG and PENGASSAN.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, had on Thursday said that NNPC would be unbundled into 30 competitive revenue-generating subsidiaries in the coming week.
According to Kachikwu, the plan which would be concluded within the next seven days would reposition the corporation to accrue profits and stability in the sector.
