Oil Workers’ Unions Protest External Appointments At NNPC

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and have rejected the plans of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) management’s plans to hire top and middle level management staff externally.

NUPENG and PENGASSAN, in a letter dated 7 April, addressed to the NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, unequivocally rejected these appointments, citing concerns over the impact on career growth for internal staff.

The letter, titled ‘Re: Filling of top management positions in NNPC Limited with externally recruited personnel is unacceptable to PENGASSAN and NUPENG GEC’, was signed by the NUPENG General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale and PENGASSAN general secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa.

“We received a troubling communication from our in-house unions dated 4th of April, 2025 about management’s plans to hire top and middle level management externally. We are in total solidarity with our members in NNPC Ltd as there is no proven record that hiring externally has yielded any positive impact on the company.

“We could recall that when Dr Kachikwu was appointed to lead the company in 2015, he removed the entire top management team and brought in people from the IOCs. Literally, all the group chief operating officers in the different directorates and lots of the MDs were brought in from outside the company. This act yielded no impact on the company bottom line but instead it stiffened the growth of career employees who had dedicated their entire working lives to the service of the then corporation and now company,” the letter read in part.

The Associations noted that such recruitments over the years were either to satisfy cronies or pay back those that lobbied for their appointments to the detriment of the career growth of Nigerians who work in the company that has been properly trained over the years.

They demanded the appointments be rescinded immediately, threatening that failure to abide by the demand will be met with fierce and serial industrial unrest.

“We wholeheartedly welcome the new GCEO and the board members that were appointed by the President and Commander-in-chief on Wednesday 2nd of April 2025, but unequivocally reject all external appointments that the board made into the M2 position and below on Friday 4th of April 2025.

“We, therefore, demand that this should be rescinded immediately as we have put our in-house group councils and various organs of the unions on red alert as failure to abide by this demand will be met with fierce and serial industrial unrest,” the letter read.

The management of the NNPCL had recently announced the appointment of a new eight-man senior management team, which it said was with immediate effect.

The team which is headed by Bashir Bayo Ojulari, group chief executive officer of NNPC, has Rowland Ewubare as group chief operating officer; Adedapo Segun as group chief financial officer; and Olalekan Ogunleye as executive vice president Gas, Power & New Energy.

Other members of the team are: Udy Ntia as executive vice president Upstream; Mumuni Dangazau as executive vice president Downstream; Sophia Mbakwe as executive vice president Business Services; and Adesua Dozie, as company secretary & chief legal officer.