Already, zonal offices of NNPC in some states of the federation, including subsidiaries affected by the unbundling exercise have shut down operations, prompting a worsened fuel scarcity in Abuja metropolis and few other states of the federation.
A minor protest also broke out early hours on Wednesday, at the headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Abuja.
Some workers who resumed for duties at the towers yesterday, met with some resistance as they were prevented from entering the office premises.
They later found out that officials of the in-house unions, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) had staged the blockade to prevent them from gaining access into the building.
The aggrieved union members said they would continue to reject the unbundling of the NNPC and force the government to rescind its decision.
Federal Government had through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, announced the unbundling of the Corporation into seven independent operational units.
Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, acting General Secretary, PENGASSAN, who anchored the protest, described the unbundling as an arbitrariness of the executive power by the Minister, adding that the Minister unilaterally declared the unbundling of the NNPC without consultation with other critical stakeholders, including PENGASSAN and NUPENG.
He also alleged that all attempts to ensure that the Minister attend to their concerns on labour issues proved abortive as he refused to meet with the workers.
Okugbawa noted that the move by the government will be tantamount to policy summersault on the part of the government.
He argued that 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.”
Federal Government had through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, announced the unbundling of the Corporation into seven independent operational units.
The House of Representatives had earlier condemned the plan to unbundle the NNPC, as proposed by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, this week without following the constitutional process, on the ground that the Corporation was created by law and its structures could not be tampered with by fiat.
The federal parliament at plenary on Tuesday said instead of embarking on an unconstitutional journey, President Muhammadu Buhari should send an executive bill to the National Assembly as soon as possible if he had the intentions to unbundle the NNPC or carry out fundamental restructuring or reforms in the oil and gas sector and not for the minister to usurp its functions.
The House, presided over by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, mandated the Committees on Petroleum Upstream, Petroleum Downstream, Gas and Local Content and Legislative Compliance to ensure that the Minister of State for Petroleum and GMD was prevented from usurping the functions of the National Assembly and desecrating the Constitution of Nigeria by not allowing him legislate for the National Assembly in the unbundling of NNPC.
The resolutions of the House followed the motion sponsored by Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe representing Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency of Cross River State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and entitled, “Urgent need to investigate acts of procedural breach by the GMD of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.” Jarigbe noted that the NNPC was established through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, CAP N123, laws of the Federation, 2004 and that as a creature of legislature, the NNPC Act or any part thereof could only be altered, changed or otherwise amended only by an Act of the National Assembly.
Jarigbe also told the House that the legislative powers of Nigeria was vested in the National Assembly with power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the federation or any part thereof, with respect to matters included in the executive legislative list.
But Kachikwu shocked staff in the oil sector and lawmakers in the House of Representatives when he released the statement unbundling the Corporation.
The new units include those for Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Refineries, Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance and Accounts, with a mandate that five out of the seven operational units would be strictly business-focussed in line with global best practices of national oil companies.
Government had also followed the process with appointment of unit heads, Bello Rabiu for Upstream; Henry Ikem-Onih in charge of Downstream Unit; Anibor Kragha to ovesee the Refineries Unit; Saidu Mohammed supervises Gas & Power, while Babatunde Adeniran, Ventures.
Isiaka Abdulrazaq was named the Group Executive Director in charge of Finance & Services while Isa Inuwa takes charge of Corporate Services.
These developments were coming just as the price of brent crude rose for the sixth consecutive trading day in a row, hitting a 2016 peak of over $40 a barrel.
The rebound from oil price lows of around $26 a barrel was believed to have been driven by chart-related buying and asset rotation by investors which resulted in higher allocations into commodities such as oil and metals, as well as equities.
Brent, the global benchmark crude, rose by $2.18 at $40.90 Monday, while its session peak was $41.04, the highest since December 9, 2015.
Kachikwu had given assurances that no worker in the oil and gas industry will be laid off due to the unbundling exercise and government would ensure that all the units respect the labour laws.
He had also clarified that the new units must be profitable and maintain their operations without dependence on government interventions.
But his assurances have not gone down well with the workers, most of whom fear they would be cut off from mainstream civil service structure and made to generate their own salaries since they would now become like private entities.
There had been threats by some international oil firms operating in Nigeria to downsize their staff members.
These downsizing threats had practically unsettled workers in the sector, especially their dependants, forcing the parent unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN to run to the Federal Government for intervention.
Some of the major oil firms such as Chevron Nigeria Limited, Exxon Mobil, Shell Nigeria Limited, DEEPORILL Oilfied Services, among others had adduced reasons for contemplating to lay off staff on poor revenue base from oil exploration activities in Nigeria.
Sources revealed to Independent Correspondent that over 10,000 staff had been penciled down, collectively for sack in a bid by the oil companies to cut cost.
The sack threats had forced the Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige to set up a twenty one-man committee to look at the thorny issues in the sector.
He had at several forums appealed to management of the oil companies to explore other means of retaining the staff.
The late Minister of State Labour and Employment, James Ocholi SAN, was appointed to chair the Committee.
Other members of the Committee were drawn from; Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Federal ministry of Interior, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).
Others are Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Nigeria Immigration Services, Oil Producing Trade Sector, Labour Contractor in the Oil and Gas Sector, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
The Committee were to among other responsibilities, review existing guidelines on Labour Administration Issues, such as Contract Staffing and Outsourcing; upgrade the Guidelines to a Ministerial Regulation as provided by Section 88 (1)(e) and (g) of the Labour Act, CAP L1, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 2004.
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