The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Friday debunked insinuations that the recent retirement of some top management staff of the corporation and appointment of new ones was biased against certain ethnic groups in the country.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Ohi Alegbe, who decried attempts by a section of the media to politicize the recent appointments, clarified that the retirements were without any regard to ethnicity or state of origin of the affected officials.
While the retirement exercise affected all those who were to retire between now and 2016, Mr. Alegbe said the new appointments were made with the express approval of President Muhammadu Buhari in compliance with extant laws regarding federal character.
“The recent appointments, promotions, and retirements are all a part of the ongoing restructuring exercise aimed repositioning the Corporation into a lean, efficient, profit-driven organization in line with international best practices without regard to primordial sentiments,” Mr. Alegbe said.
He urged the public to discountenance any report aimed at denigrating the ongoing reorganization exercise in the Corporation.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Emmanuel Kachikwu has implored the newly reconstituted management to team up with him to close the skills gap and turn the fortunes of the corporation around.
Speaking at his maiden interactive session with the top management of the corporation in Abuja, the GMD said he would strive to create a conducive working environment for members of staff, to boost their morale of the work and facilitate the transformation of the corporation into a profit centre like its peers in other climes.
The NNPC boss urged members of the top management to provide leadership by example to the workforce, adding that sectionalism, tribalism and any form of non-transparent transactions must be completely stamped out of the corporation.
The GMD noted that his administration would ensure that all the refineries of the corporation were run efficiently and profitably to meet the energy needs of the country.
He said the Corporate Service Unit and all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of the NNPC would henceforth be run as profit centres, while noting that the days the firm was perceived as a civil service organization rather than a corporation, were over.
Mr. Kachikwu urged all members of staff to act as change agents in all their undertaking to ensure that within the next 60 days some of the strategic targets set by the present administration would be translated into concrete milestones to the appreciation of all Nigerians.
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