PDP Govs Back NUPENG Over NNPC Restructuring
Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko and Member’s of the PDP Governor’s Forum[/caption]
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has received the backing of the PDP Governors Forum to resist the planned layoff of over 1, 000 employees of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in what the forum said is a shadowy restructuring.
The oil corporation plans to sack the over 1,000 employees according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, based on a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari.
The PDP governors in a statement by its Coordinator, Osaro Onaiwu, said it was ironic that a regime that touted job creation as one of its major policy would engage in clandestine mass sack of Nigerians without recourse to consultation with labour unions such as NUPENG and PENGASSAN.
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The statement reads, “It should not come as a surprise to the discerning that the APC regime is steeped in subterfuge and manipulation of facts and situations to deceive Nigerians and it has once again demonstrated this in the massive lay off of struggling Nigerians from its employ in the NNPC.
“As traditional with the ruling party, there is no room for consultation and negotiation on matters of concern to the populace. Little wonder that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has failed to consult with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and NUPENG to collectively look at the looming mass retrenchment in state owned oil company.
“The federal government should shed its military-style approach and learn to take the people into confidence on such matters as sacking in order not to overheat the polity.”
The governors said going forward, there is the need for the government to convene a major stakeholders’ meeting to examine the challenges facing the oil and gas sector, and proffer the way forward.
