Thousands of experienced cadre applicants have accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of abandoning them after commencing the process for their recruitment, fuelling concerns that advertised positions have been secretly filled.
The applications stated this in a petition addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The petitioners, who fell under the experienced cadre, said that while the graduate cadre has already been recruited by the corporation, they (petitioners) have been abandoned in spite of initial encouraging engagement from the corporation.
They said that although NNPC communicated with them initially over the status of the recruitment exercise, the corporation stopped communicating with them in June 2019, around the time Mele Kyari took over as the Group Managing Director.
“In March 2019, the then NNPC GMD, Dr Maikanti Baru (now deceased) with his management team that included the current GMD, Mallam Mele Kyari, through various national newspapers, placed advertisements welcoming applications to vacancies in different positions involving graduate trainees and experienced hires after the needs assessment of the corporation.
“By June 1, 2019, a CBT aptitude test was conducted nationwide for the over 60,000 candidates shortlisted in an open and transparent manner monitored by leading television stations. After assessment, about 10,000 candidates passed the test and were scheduled for interviews between July 1 and 10, 2019 at the NNPC Towers Abuja conducted by the different corporation’s technical panels,” a copy of the petition published by The Punch read.
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The petitioners stated that on February 14, 2020, the NNPC management released the outcome of the interview for only the graduate trainees but promised to address the experienced cadre applicants in due course but never did.
According to them, the corporation under Kyari shunned several civil society organisations demanding the completion of the experienced cadre recruitment and ignored advertorials and open letters to the GMD.
“The GMD, Mallam Mele Kyari, appeared on the monthly webinar programme, the June edition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, and several questions about this lingering incomplete recruitment were posed.
“He responded that the ‘experienced hire candidates will be contacted as soon as possible’. Your Excellency, till date, this pledge has not been fulfilled and still (there’s) no communication or any form of contact with the affected candidates, who are very qualified Nigerian young professionals, who have been assessed and interviewed by the highest technical organ of the corporation itself.”
They said they felt compelled to write President Buhari after attempts to get the attention of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila as well as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, through social media failed.
The applicants called on the President to use his good offices to compel the Kyari-led NNPC management to complete the experienced cadre recruitment exercise in the spirit of transparency.
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