•Reiterate Call for Restructuring
By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has bemoaned the marginalisation of the region from the mainstream management structure of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries and departments in favour of the northern part of the country.
The group while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently correct the abnormality also reiterated its call for proper restructuring of the country.
Their position was contained in an open letter entitled, “Re: Addressing the Continued Injustice Against the Niger Delta People Vis the Lopsided Appointments in the NNPC and its Subsidiaries/Departments,” addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekend.
PANDEF, in the letter signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, rejected the deliberate and calculated sidelining of Niger Delta indigenes in appointments and redeployments in the NNPC and its subsidiaries.
The group said the region’s marginalisation at the national oil corporation became even more pronounced in the March 2020 promotions and reorganisation, which further isolated the Niger Delta from its mainstream management structure.
PANDEF stated, “Today, under Mr. President’s watch, the paradoxical and dismal reality is that in the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), through which the federal government regulates and participates in the country’s petroleum industry that operates in our backyards, virtually all top management positions of the corporation and its subsidiaries, departments, and ventures are held by persons from the northern zones of the country that do not produce an ounce of oil, to the exclusion of indigenes of oil producing communities of Niger Delta region.”
PANDEF listed 20 management positions held by northerners in NNPC to include Group Managing Director (GMD), Mele Kyari; Chief Finance Officer, Finance and Accounts, Umar Ajiya; Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Yusuf Usman; Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services, Farouk Garba Sa’id; Chief Operating Officer, Refining and Petrochemicals, Mustapha Yakubu; Corporate Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Corporation, Hadiza Coomassie; GGM, International Energy Relations, IER, Omar Ibrahim; GGM, Renewable Energy, Kallamu Abdullahi; GGM, Governance Risk and Compliance, Ibrahim Birma; and GGM, NAPIMS, Bala Wunti.
Others are MD, NNPC Shipping, Inuwa Waya; MD, Pipelines and Product Marketing, PPMC, Musa Lawan; MD, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, Mansur Sambo; MD, Duke Oil/NNPC Trading Company, Lawal Sade; MD, Port Harcourt Refining Company, Malami Shehu; MD, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, Muhammed Abah; MD, Nigeria Gas Marketing Company, Abdulkadir Ahmed; MD, Nigeria Gas and Power Investment Company Limited, Salihu Jamari; MD, NNPC Medical Services, Mohammed Zango; and Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Sarki Auwalu.
PANDEF stated that the entire southern Nigeria was allotted only three top management positions in the NNPC.
Culled from ThisDay.
