Tribune Reshuffle your cabinet now, NUPENG tells Jonathan · Written by Soji-Eze Fagbemi, Tunde Dodondawa and Medinat Adenekan with Agency Reports · Tuesday, 02 July 2013 00:00 THE Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Monday evening called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately reshuffle his cabinet, declaring that in as much as the President meant well for the country, those working with him do not want his government to succeed. The union made the call in a press briefing in Abuja, where it also declared that the 3-day warning strike, which started on Monday will continue. National President of NUPENG, Comrade Achese Igwe, who addressed the press conference specifically expressed concern over the attitude of the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke, who called the leadership of the union for a meeting on Monday, but failed to meet them. When asked if the union was calling for the sack of Diezani, the NUPENG president said: “We are saying that President Jonathan should as a matter of urgency reshuffle his cabinet to allow the country to move forward. “There is a systemic failure in the country. The failure is not from the president, but those who are working with him. The man needs to reshuffle his cabinet and look for committed people. We will continue to support the President, but not with the ministers who are not allowing his good work to show, we will not allow that. “We as a union fully support the president, because he means well for this nation, but most of the people working with him in his cabinet are only working for their own pockets,” Igwe said. He said the 3-day warning strike will continue, adding that the purpose is to bring the multinationals to the roundtable and tell them that the way Nigerians working with them are being treated is very bad. He regretted that they could not hold any meeting on Monday because the minister who invited them was not in town, even as he added that when they got to the Ministry of Petroleum for the meeting, workers in the ministry were also protesting against the minister’s style of administration. However, he stated that the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu invited the union for a meeting along with the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) late Monday night. He expressed hope that the meeting with the Minister of Labour could go a long way to ensure that the multinationals who continue to engage in anti-labour practices come to the roundtable. Although he stated that the union had no plan to picket Chevron and Shell, which it accuses of unfair labour practices, Achese lamented that the government chooses to identify with the multinationals by militarising their premises. This action, he said, points to the fact that the government is in bed with the multinationals that enslave Nigerians. He said: “How can a person, after working as contract staff for 25 years wake up one day, have his contract terminated, and be given just N300,000 as severance package. He called for a stakeholders meeting to discuss the policies operational in the sector which it said are not in line with international best practices. Achese also noted that there is a need for the Ministry of Petroleum to publicly define what should be termed as ‘core job’ under which guise multinationals choose to keep staff as contract workers. He added: “How can you say a plant or rig operator is not a core staff? When a casual staff works on a core job, then he should be converted to a permanent staff.” On the hardships being suffered by the looming scarcity, the NUPENG president appealed to Nigerians for understanding and added that the union fought for democracy and would fight for any segment of the society that is being oppressed, and therefore would not deliberately bring hardships on the citizenry. Fuel queues Long fuel queues have again resurfaced in most filling stations in Abuja following a three-day warning strike embarked upon by NUPENG. NUPENG started the strike on Monday to press home its demand for what it termed unfair labour practices by some oil companies toward its workers. A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who visited some major filling stations in the FCT on Monday reported that chaos was the order of the day as motorists jostled to get fuel. At the popular NNPC mega station in the central area, the queue had resulted in partial blockage of the adjoining road and a horrendous traffic jam. NAN spoke with some motorists at the filling station who expressed dismay at the development, with a call on the relevant government agencies to immediately step in to address the situation. Mr Pius Adejoh, a civil servant at the filling station described the situation as a set-back to the transformation agenda in the oil and gas sector. “I think it’s really very sad that we are back to those days when we have to queue at filling stations to get fuel. “The Federal Government needs to step in and meet with the oil unions with a view to finding a lasting solution to this perennial problem,” he stated. Mr Kayode Olagoke, a taxi driver, also condemned the sudden queues at the filling stations and warned that it would lead to an increase in transportation fares if not urgently addressed. The situation was also not different at the Conoil Filling Station, Central Area, opposite the NNPC Towers as long queues of vehicles were seen around the station. NUPENG President, Mr Igwe, told NAN that the union had to call for the strike “due to unfair treatment of our workers by some oil companies which include Shell Petroleum development Company (SPDC), Chevron Nigeria Ltd., and Agip Oil Company.” Igwe said that the leadership of the union had directed its members at various depots to stop the loading of petroleum products to press home its demand. He warned that the union would embark on an indefinite strike after the three-day warning strike if government and the relevant authorities failed to address its grievances. PMS dealers begin hoarding Following the commencement of three-day warning strike some Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) dealers have begun hoarding of the products. When Nigerian Tribune visited Tin-Can and Apapa depots on Monday, both depots were paralysed as no lifting of fuel was allowed by the union. A marketer who preferred anonymity told Nigerian Tribune that “no lifting was allowed today, but I hope the strike won’t extend beyond Wednesday according to NUPENG.” However, a petrol dealer, Kamoru Sekoni, told Nigerian Tribune that he has decided to stop selling fuel inside gallons in order to disuade black market operators. “Some guys came to my filling station to fill a 50-litre gallon with petrol, but I instructed my attendants not to sell. I suspected they are black market operators,” he said. But when asked if that was hoarding in disguise or not, he claimed his action won’t influence pump price. NUPENG is also protesting the refusal of NARTO to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with the Petroleum Tanker Drivers. In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Abarare Isaac, it stated that: “The union have exhausted all efforts for a stakeholders meeting in the oil and gas sector to address the situation, but the oil multinationals have failed to implement the agreement reached for a truce in the meeting brokered by the Minister of Labour, Chief Wogu.” “The union therefore directed, all its members in the depots to stop loading petroleum products for the next three days, with members in all the branches in the country to follow suit. “The union stressed that if after the 3-day warning strike, nothing was done to address the situation, it would be forced to embark on an indefinite and total strike action nationwide,” he claimed. Kaduna NUPENG joins strike The Kaduna branch of NUPENG, has also joined the three-day warning strike embarked by the union nationwide. NAN reports that filling stations have closed down while tanker drivers have parked their vehicles “awaiting further directives” from union officials. At the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company depot, tanker drivers were seeing idling away while their vehicles were parked. One of them, Habibu Abubakar said officials of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association had directed them not to lift or off load fuel until after the strike. The Deputy Secretary General of NUPENG, Adamu Song told NAN in a telephone interview that the Kaduna branch had set up a task force to monitor filling stations and sanction defaulters. Transport fares have however remained stable in the city but officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers were meeting to appraise the situation and consider possibility of an increase.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 09:20:07 +0000
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