WHEN THE OIL SECTOR OVERHEATS THE POLITY

The recent strike by oil workers is misguided, argues Emma Agu

Nigerians woke up few days ago to an escalation of the fuel shortage that had ravaged the country recently even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) rose stoutly to defuse the situation. This new twist to an already abating saga was allegedly caused by an ill-informed directive by the leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) asking their members to down tools in protest against the unbundling of the corporation by the current management led by Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu who also doubles as group managing director of the corporation.

News reports indicate that the grouse of the leadership of the unions is Kachikwu’s alleged failure to follow due process in the unbundling exercise. Given that one is not apprised of the procedure for effecting changes to government corporations, I shall preoccupy myself with how the action exacerbates the hardship Nigerians are passing through and why the protagonists may not win the support of the people.

To put it mildly, the action of both unions is ill-timed. Viewed seriously, it translates to a very unfair blow to commuters, transporters and all those who use fuel for their businesses. Coming in the wake of the concerted efforts by the NNPC and the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ameliorate the biting fuel shortages, one wonders what other clandestine motives could have ignited this unconscionable firestorm by the union executives.

Granted that unionists have historically acted as a watchdog against institutional oppression and corporate injustice, it will appear that in the instant case, the unionists decided to hit the NNPC below the belt at a time that widespread misgivings over the internecine fuel shortages is beginning to paint the Buhari administration in bad light. Do we therefore conclude that there is more that meets the eyes to this strike than the protection of the rights of workers?

Let us even concede that nothing more than the interest of labour is at the root of this ill-timed strike. Does that mean that the people are not entitled to debating the merits and demerits of both sides to the unbundling argument? To be sure, the dialectics of unbundling in Nigeria call for painstaking introspection and astute gate-keeping. For, as we are all aware, it does not seem that the unbundling of the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has ended satisfactorily or brought about the expected improvement in power supply. But as we are all aware, extraneous issues have often been played destabilising roles in these corporations. Yet, any patriotic Nigerian will vote for complete unbundling or privatisation of most of the government companies if only to minimise graft, reduce inefficiency and eliminate nepotism.

While it is admitted that the unbundling of PHCN may not have been an unqualified success, the same cannot be said of the privatisation of the telecoms sector in spite of the setback suffered in the unbundling of NITEL. Besides, further unbundling exercises are bound to learn from the mistakes of the past. That, to me, is what the leadership of the oil workers’ unions should advocate. But to shut down the ministry, corporation and ancillary agencies and to subject Nigerians to prolonged hardship smacks of excessive selfishness and crass immorality.

If we may ask, where were these union leaders when those saddled with the responsibility of steering the affairs of the oil industry engaged in less than honorable conduct thereby imperilling our economy and mortgaging the future of our country? Where were the union leaders, over the years that our refineries have functioned in the breach in spite of huge sums of money voted for periodic turn around maintenance (TAM)? Where were the union leaders when highly respected oil industry technocrats were turned into pawns on the chessboard of political expediency; when, in some cases, dubious experts took over strategic functions and turned our common patrimony into an avenue for political patronage? Where were the union leaders when importation of fuel was accorded priority over establishment of local refineries that would have increased fuel supply, reduced the haemorrhage of our foreign exchange, boosted the downstream sector of our economy, generated huge employment and promoted capacity building? What has been their role in the fuel subsidy jamboree? Where were they?

It is difficult to rationalise the misgivings of the leaderships of both PENGASSAN and NUPENG against the background of the new corporate environment being enthroned by Ibe Kachikwu. Or can it be said that the union leaderships are miffed by the new culture of transparency that has won the NNPC accolades from NEITI and other industry stakeholders? Or is it likely that this inexcusable affront to public welfare, corporate re-engineering and integrity is the handiwork of middlemen and political jobbers who had, hitherto, exploited the badly flawed system to rob the nation of huge revenue?

At the risk of sounding anti-labour, let us not forget that there are moments when national survival overrides even certain liberties and demand that labour rethinks its traditional approach to problem solving. One approach that deserves to be sparingly used at a period like this is the strike weapon. For lack of a better phrase, this country is strike weary. Unfortunately, we seem to pay scant attention to the systematic despoliation of virtually every national institution: education, health, transport and aviation, energy and power, etc., by years of avoidable industrial actions and disguised sabotage.

To some Nigerians, it is still politics as usual. That is tragic indeed. Those who can’t make a distinction between a real pistol and a toy gun stand the risk of being harmed by the former. Nigeria is passing through an economic emergency, a declared war and a national psyche badly damaged by the economic downturn and impunity. This is not the time for politics as usual, whether it is labour politics or party politics. What labour is doing is akin to riding the back of the tiger; we could all end up inside its stomach.

If oil industry workers are sincere, if they are acting in the greater interest of the people, if they are not being instigated by aggrieved business and political interests, then they should call this strike off immediately and engage the leadership of NNPC in an honest dialogue to accommodate their concerns and pull the country out of this dangerous quagmire. On its part, the leadership of NNPC, no matter its justification, should listen to the workers. That, in my view, is the stakeholder approach which averts overheating the polity by the oil sector.