Labour calls for unbundling of NNPC

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called on the Federal Government to carry out urgent reforms in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to enable the corporation to function efficiently.Alhaji Abdulwaheed Omar, NLC president and his TUC counterpart, Mr Peter Esele, said this in Abuja, on Monday, in separate speeches to commemorate the 2012 May Day celebration.The NLC president decried the corruption in the petroleum sector and called on stakeholders in the industry to ensure sanity was restored in the sector.Omar called for a comprehensive reform of the downstream sector and the revival of domestic refining, through the complete overhaul of the domestic refineries and creation of new greenfield refineries.'We believe that our domestic refineries must be made to work. Appropriate incentives need to be worked out to attract new investment in refining,'' he said.In his speech, Esele decried the rate of 'dishonest behaviour' in the oil and gas sector and called for its repositioning for the economic stability of the nation.'We want to use this unique opportunity of our celebration to say that until Nigeria gets it right with the sector, it will be difficult for the nation to move forward.'There is no other sector of the nation's economy that has experienced the kind of sleaze and opaqueness that is going on in the oil and gas industry,'' he said.He stressed the need for the NNPC to be operated like a commercial entity and the need to urgently pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to bring professionalism to the sector.
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