From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have jointly rejected the recruitment of external candidates into top and middle-level management positions at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), threatening industrial action.
In a joint letter signed by the General Secretaries of both unions, Afolabi Olawale (NUPENG) and Lumumba Okugbawa (PENGASSAN), the unions expressed strong disapproval of management’s reported plans to hire externally for key roles, describing the move as “unacceptable” and detrimental to the growth of career employees within the organisation.
The letter, dated April 4, cited past experiences, including the 2015 leadership era under Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, during which several top-level positions were filled with individuals from international oil companies (IOCs).
The unions argued that those appointments failed to improve the company’s performance and instead demoralized long-serving staff members.
While the unions welcomed the recent appointment of a new CEO and board by President Bola Tinubu, they strongly opposed subsequent external appointments made into M2 positions and below.
The unions demanded the immediate reversal of the appointments and warned of impending industrial unrest should their demands be ignored.
“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. Literarily, 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. “We have critically examined that such recruitments over the years are 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. We wholeheartedly welcome the new CEO 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 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 document was copied to the Ministers of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil and Gas), the Chairman of the NNPC Ltd Board, the Chief Human Resource Officer of NNPC Ltd, and other key stakeholders within the unions’ structure.