Nigerian Senate to probe NNPC decision

Senate Chief Whip Olusola Adeyeye on Wednesday said he would bring a motion to the floor regarding President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to unbundle the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), saying the action was illegal.

Adeyeye chided Buhari’s federal government for allegedly not having consulted the National Assembly, echoing claims by two major trade unions, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, which said they too were in the dark about the nature of the decision to unbundle the state entity into independent units.

Adeyeye’s announcement follows protests that began earlier on the day and which crippled NNPC offices and facilities across Nigeria, sparking fears of fuel shortages and a prolonged industry shutdown. The Vanguard newspaper reported long queues at petrol stations had formed by mid-day.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and NNPC group managing director Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu added to the confusion on Wednesday, saying the state entity would in fact not be unbundled. “What we simply did was a reorganisation. NNPC has not been unbundled in the sense of breaking up NNPC into different institutions,” Reuters quoted Kachikwu as saying. He added that he would engage in talks with the unions to find a solution over the restructuring exercise. “We are going to have a meeting with them right now. I don’t want the industry shut down – I am going now to resolve the issues very soon,” he said.

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