Fuel Scarcity Returns As Oil Workers Go On Indefinite Strike

Just when Nigerians thought that the recent fuel
scarcity would be coming to an end, latest news
reveals that that isn’t the case as oil workers shut
down all NNPC locations nationwide and went on
an indefinite strike.
Earlier in the week the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources and Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, stated that
NNPC would be unbundled into 30 profit-making
companies with separate Managing Directors in
the weeks ahead as part of the ongoing
transformation of the national oil company.
This disclosure didn’t go down well with the
players in the industry, and as a result the Group
Executive Councils of Nigeria Union of Petroleum
and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in a meeting
yesterday stated that after “extensively discussing
the pronouncement of the GMD on NNPC
unbundling…observed that the GMD/HMSP totally
disregarded due process and failed to engage
stakeholders”
They therefore resolved that “…from midnight
today (Tuesday, March 8), all NNPC locations will
be shut down completely until further notice.
Further directives will be communicated
accordingly”.
According to Vanguard, some of the workers who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, chided the
Federal Government, the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu and the
management of the NNPC for taking such decision
which concerns and affect the future of the
workers without due consultations.