NNPC: Oil Workers End Strike …As FG Pledges Not To Cut Jobs

Rivers State Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs) Ipalibo Harry-Banigo exchanging pleasantries with the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Hon. Rodaford LongJohn, during a stakeholders meeting at the Governors Lodge, Bonny Local Government Area, Rivers State.

The major oil and gas industry unions, yesterday, ended a day-old strike against Federal Government’s plans to revamp the beleaguered Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, assured the workers that there would be no job cuts.
The strike, launched on Wednesday, came amid spiralling oil prices due to a domestic shortage and was called by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
The unions said they had not been informed of the plan to streamline the inefficient and corrupt NNPC but called it off after the minister promised that the restructuring would not entail any lay-offs.
The strike had worsened the fuel shortage across the country with long queues of cars in the roads waiting for petrol at filling stations, causing gridlocks for over a week.
“The strike was called off around 5:00am (0400 GMT) yesterday morning at the end of an all-night meeting with union officials,” General Manager, Group Public Affairs, NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, said.
“The minister clarified the government’s position on the on-going reorganisation in NNPC. At the end of the day, the unions were satisfied,” he said.
Alegbe said normal operations had resumed “fully at the various petrol depots and the current long queues will soon disappear.”
But a senior NUPENG official, Tokunbo Korodo, said yesterday, that the petrol shortages would continue as the shortage of foreign exchange in Nigeria was exacerbating the problem.
“There had been fuel scarcity before the strike … It is important for the government to address the exchange rate problem,” Korodo said.
It would be recalled that Nigeria’s Naira has been trading at more than N300 to the dollar in the black market, far above the official rate of N197-N199.
Despite being Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria has to import petroleum products because of lack of capacity at its four functioning domestic refineries.
The government keeps prices at the pump low and pays the difference to fuel importers, who frequently hold the country at ransom by refusing to distribute fuel over tardy subsidy payments.
The oil sector accounts for 70 per cent of government revenue but has been hit by the global fall in crude prices since mid-2014, weakening the Naira and forcing up the cost of living.