Kachikwu assures ongoing reforms won’t cause mass sack of NNPC staffs

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has assured that the ongoing reforms at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, does not include lay off of the staff of the corporation.

Dr. Ibe Kachikwu disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while meeting with labour union leaders in the oil and gas sector, he said the government, instead of reducing the workforce of the NNPC will expand its operations in order to make it competitive.

Achese Igwe, the Deputy President, Nigerian Labour Congress said; “We are going to vehemently resist any attempt to sack workers. We have advised service companies and multinational firms that are in the act of outsourcing and contracting that this will portend the loss of jobs for Nigerians.

“We say no to them because that is not what this government is all about. The government today talks about job creation and not job losses. With the current economic challenge we are having in our country, we need not to lose jobs that are already created.”

The NLC Deputy President continued that; “One of the concrete assurance he has given is that there will be no job losses. He has said there will be job security and he is thinking of expanding the business of the NNPC to be a profit organisation and to also be a world class oil and gas company like Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them.

“If you ask me, what is the staff strength of the NNPC and what is the staff strength of Petrobras, Petronas and the rest of them?, We are just an inch of the staff strength of these organisations. Most of them have a staff strength of 34,000 personnel and what is the staff strength of NNPC? The entire staff strength of NNPC today is not up 5,000 as the case maybe, and you are talking about these organisations that came after you or almost the same time with you.

“We have said clearly and I am speaking as the NUPENGASSAN chairman today that any attempt to cause job losses in the oil and gas sector especially at the NNPC, we will definitely react. We will resist it accordingly and we will do it within the framework of what labour union is known for.”