Oil workers, under the auspices of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have made case for the re-organisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries.
They also advocate less of government’s interference, as a way forward for the corporation, as against the position of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, who wants it scrapped.
El-Rufai, in a paper he delivered at the seventh Wole Soyinka’s birthday lecture he delivered on Monday, sought for the scrapping of the national corporation, saying “kill the NNPC before the NNPC kill us.”
But PENGASSAN, through its acting secretary general, Lumumba Okugbawa, faulted El-Rufai, saying rather than seeking to scrap the NNPC, the governor should condemn undue political interference that caused distraction to the corporation.
“If you look at the NNPC as it is today, it has been politicised with most of its decisions and operations being influenced with political motives and at times, executive fiat. The corporation is so much tied to the apron of the political office holders but not the technocrats that are at the helm of the corporation’s affairs,” Okugbawa said.
Okugbawa listed some of the areas of undue interference to include appointment and removal of the group managing director, group executive directors, and managing directors of NNPC subsidiaries at the whims and caprices of the president; and limited financial autonomy for its operations
The unionist said “NNPC should be a national oil corporation that can compete favourably globally like Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia, Petronas of Malaysia, Petrobras of Brazil, and Statoil of Norway, etc., given the opportunities and market potentials.”
He said that NNPC created by an Act of Parliament in 1977, made up of the holding office, subsidiaries and service units had been subjected to undue political interference, which hindered its autonomy for effective running and competitiveness for the past six years, and that should not be a yardstick for the scrapping of the corporation.
He further argued that “if we take a look at NNPC contemporaries in the world, such as Saudi Aramco, Petrobras, Petronas and Statoil, we will notice that their holding governments give those companies freedom to growth and expansion of the companies to the great benefits of the citizenry and their respective governments.
“Operations and administration of NNPC comes under several masters and conflicting instructions, some of which defy the national objectives and aspirations for setting up the national oil corporation and its subsidiaries.
“Appointment, removal and/or transfer of the heads and staff of the corporation and its subsidiaries are often executed by fiat in the manner that undermines the extant national laws, and the NNPC Act.
“Frequent changes in top management positions lead to policy somersault, and create unstable system, which often breed compromise of corporate values and principles. It is instructive to note that between 2009 and now, there have been five GMDs for NNPC namely, Mohammed Barkindo (2009-2010); Late Shehu Ladan (April – May 2010); Austen Oniwon (2010-2012); Andrew Yakubu (2012-2014) and Joseph Dawha (Aug 2014 till date).”
Okugbawa however agreed there was corruption in the NNPC as mentioned by the governor as hindering growth and development in the oil and gas sector, but “let the government deal with the corruption in the system and not ‘throw away the baby with the bath water.”
He called on the government to instil in NNPC, the culture of corporate governance and career management, which require a legislative review to ensure that the board of NNPC was headed by technocrats and not politicians; infuse compliance with global best practices and competitiveness, responsibility, transparency and accountability of all accruing revenue and expenditure in the national oil company; ensure that audit of NNPC and subsidiaries’ business and investment relationships, operations, financing, procurements were carried out and published at appropriate intervals.
JOSHUA BASSEY
