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Tag: Seyi Gambo

  • Union leaders should imbibe values of late Pa Imoudu – Comrade Gambo

    Union leaders should imbibe values of late Pa Imoudu – Comrade Gambo

    Comrade Seyi Gambo is the former National Publicity Secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). In this interview with Justice Ilevbare, he spoke on a wide range of issues affecting Labour Unions,  leadership crisis and how to better the lives of members among others.

    Against the backdrop of  the directive by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, asking oil and gas companies not to sack their workers, the Director General of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo,  said the minister was not putting into perspective the poor economic environment that had eroded the profits of private sector employers.

    But Comrade Seyi Gambo, a former National Publicity Secretary of PENGASSAN in a chat with the Nation said the unions or members of these unions are victims of their respective weak and reactionary leadership.

    “The minister for one should know that you can force a horse to the river but you cannot force it to drink. Are all the firms in the oil and gas industry government owned? Coming from the background that the minister of Petroleum and Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) promised that there will be no job loss within the cadre of the in house unions.

    “What kind of labour industrial relations is the Labour minister pursuing? What will happen therefore is that the people that the companies can still allow on their payroll will all be sent packing,” he said.

    According to Gambo; “If the union leadership in the past had lived up to the billing, things won’t be this bad. But like vultures they eat the future of hardworking members. Billions of dollars if not zillions was made from this sector with nothing to show for it. The unions failed as gate keepers on all fronts. They failed to check mate irresponsible spending by government and fraudulent indiginisation of the sector. They failed to bring the IOC’s to account for how much they were really lifting.

    “Just as they failed to force government to secure the industry as is amplified in signing into law Petroleum Industry Bill – PIB in the National Assemble for years on end. It was under their watch that oil thief became a national menace affecting the bottom line globally of the IOC’s and government revenue. How can they even set agenda or have effective collaboration when most of their leaders are out of their depth?

    “Can you believe that one of the National president’s of a strategic union in the oil and gas sector in the 21st century is a WASC holder, WASC is the highest certificate he has! Can such a person appreciate the dynamics of governance and the sector?” he queried

    According to him people like these get into office through orchestrated election.

    “There are always interests in elections, interests for good or evil that want to control leadership of these unions because of the influence organised labour wields. So like in this case, there was a tripartite unholy alliance between the former government, an amorphous parastatal of government in the oil and gas sector and unfortunately most members are not discerning.

    “They are not sensitive to ask questions about the integrity of personalities vying for elective positions. They vote for individuals based on primordial sentiments. They take their eyes away from the prize, the big picture and who will serve the interest of the nation most. Often times we have opportunists in this business.”

    Comrade Gambo also spoke about the election of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which generated a lot of crisis last year.  In his view; “That was a shame not a sham. A group emerged clear leaders and the other group just refused to accept. This is exactly what I am talking about, a shame because simple headcount became too difficult for some people. If sincerely they are in this business to serve, it should not be do or die. I lost an election, and immediately after the loss some comrades came to meet me that there is a window to scuttle the result because the election was held in spite of a subsisting court order restraining the union from going ahead with it.

    “So NLC flouted at a critical point in our history when everybody was looking to the union for leadership. Recall the national election was already postponed by INEC and usually organised Labour serve as a catalyst to the democratic processes. I am still hurt when I think of some of these things we have done to a noble movement like the unions in Nigeria. How do we then demand respect from others when we don’t respect ourselves? What kind of legacies are we leaving behind for our successor generation?”

    ‎Speaking further, Gambo believes that the unions are the architect of their misfortune as things stands presently.

    ”Exactly we are the architects of our misfortune. A leader that does not have a fertile mind will only be looking for their personal survival, using divide and rule to moderate the union. Unnecessary politicking instead of giving focused leadership. In my own union for example, the president is due for retirement mid this year, two years into his first tenure. The constitution made provision for a bye-election, but to the embarrassment of all he is not only pushing to finish his tenure, but already campaigning for a second tenure. So the union is now an organisation of anything goes.

    “Therefore if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? I have a case in court as I speak based on what I interpret to be constitutional breaches of my union’s constitution. So we are waiting for the ruling of the National Industrial Court on same. It has caused me deep sorrow that a union which I gave everything as former National PRO, fought the minister of petroleum that wanted to sell our refineries to a standstill, had close shave with death whilst on national assignment should be taken to court by me. However what can one do in the absence of inter democracy?  Can we say we have a union in the banking sector with the hazards bank staff in the marketing department is made to go through in the name of targets?  How did the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NITEL, Nigeria Airways and other hitherto profitable government ventures died? It’s because their respective union leadership got compromised.”

    On the last subsidy protest, he said, “First let us acknowledge that the protest did not start by unions in the sector that is PENGASSAN and NUPENG, neither by the trade centres, Trade Union Congress and Nigerian Labour congress. That agenda was set by the civil societies and we just joined in and took the wheels because we are the strategic partners of government in that industry. ‎The unions failed in that negotiation, but that will be story for yet another day. Nigerians also failed because when soldiers took over the streets, Nigerians could have insisted on staying at home, not going to work after the unions negations failed to achieve the total reversal.”

    On his proposed book; “You will have to wait for my book. A lot of things will be revealed in there. Basically my book’s thrust is on leadership in the union and the privilege God gave me to serve at the highest level.  I can say without any fear that I never betrayed my members; I have not collected a bribe.”

    But how can the union reinvent their leadership like in the days of Pa Imodu? Comrade Gambo said; “The Pa Imodu’s era is a perfect example. I read about it last year in Major Bashorun’s book‎. He told of how the colonial masters and wealthy Nigerians did not want to have issues with the unions because they were focused, enlightened.

    “We’re sincere and God fearing- these values are absent in most unions today. Nowadays union leaders even orchestrate the retrenchment of members they see are critical of their wrong doings, whereas the culture of a successful union is in how robust its debates are.

    “I started taking up the establishment while I was a student of Federal Government College

    Kaduna and member of the press club then. I had first hand training in UNILAG. I was with Red Drum, Sowore, Malcolm- X (who is a first class graduate of mechanical engineering). Then outside the campus I had mentors like Professor Abubakar Momoh, Ayo Aderinale former executive secretary of Africa leadership forum and many others.

    “So by the time I got into public service and union, I knew my onions. I appreciate the privilege to serve the masses. However most of the personalities in office nowadays are there to enrich themselves. We need to go back to the basics, we need to unite, we need to put our first -eleven forward. We need to stand together against injustices in the union; we cannot sow evil seeds and expect to reap good crops. Every Nigeria must start to champion a new Nigerian way of life wherever we are – Within our families, workplace schools,” Gambo counseled.

     

  • Int’l Workers Day: Beyond the march and solidarity songs

    Int’l Workers Day: Beyond the march and solidarity songs

    “People will appreciate unionism when unions become active.” –Thomas Mattig.

    Time was when International Workers Day held significant meaning for all Nigerian workers.

    On the first of May every year, Nigerian workers join their comrades around the globe in body, soul and spirit to celebrate heroes of the workers/labour movement who risked their lives for enhanced welfare and conducive working environment.

    May DAY as the International Worker’s Day is popularly known in Nigeria, was chosen by the Second International (1889-1916), to commemorate the Hay market incident on the fourth of May 1886 in Chicago.

    In one of the peaceful demonstrations held across America by workers to demand an eight hour work day, Chicago police killed some demonstrators. At yet another rally organised to protest police killings and brutality, a bomb was thrown into the rally and some policemen were killed. Subsequently, eight organisers of the rallies were charged to courts, in spite of the evidence which showed that the labour leaders were nowhere near Chicago at the time of the dastardly act. They were convicted of culpable homicide, four to be hanged; and one was to later die in prison.

    Labour unions have sprung up in every sector and subsector of the Nigeria economy. However, for the better part of the last two decades, Nigerian workers have consistently been at the receiving end of job loss especially in the oil and gas sector, compared to their counterparts in other oil producing nations, due to multifaceted factors internally and externally.

    There is a decline in the quality of visionary and pragmatic labour leadership, to partner government or employers and to set realistic agendas for strategic position of the workforce. A perfect example can be drawn from labours’ inability and political will to get the four national refineries working. As local petroleum consumption is import-driven, jobs are created for foreign refineries while Nigeria’s rot away and workers face job losses in their thousands.

    These are not the best of times for Nigerian workers because they have failed to address fundamental or policy issues far too long that things have degenerated with government being allowed to renege on many agreements to fix the economy without sanctions.

    Industrial actions are going to be very risky in the face faltering oil revenues which typically sustains the economy‎,  ‎with the fact that the populace have gotten lethargic of incessant strike actions which resolves nothing at the end of the day.

    Meanwhile, there will be a much more vicious demand for increased pay by union members in the face of harsh economic realities and dwindling power of the naira.  Employers are changing the way they work as well.  Whereas Nigerian jobs are not being out-sourced, there however now exists, a mass of casual and contract workers whose working conditions excludes the typical employee benefits such as medical insurance, paid leave etc

    There are discordant voices within the Nigeria labour fraternity today, things are falling apart and the centre can no longer hold. The vultures seems to be having a field day as unions and labour centres engage in one show of shame after the other to the dismay of an already cynical public that has long wondered whether the labour movement contributes anything positive to their lives.

    Unionism used to be the bastion of robust debate, intellectual stimulation and cross fertilisation of ideas. However, what many celebrated as the capitulation of the dynamic campus unions, feeder system, is more than any other, the reason for the dearth of qualitative labour leadership outside the Ivory Towers experience.

    The narrative has changed as a labour metamorphosis into an embodiment of charlatans because emerging leaders have jettisoned basic courtesies of human interaction.‎ Unionism is now a farce.

    Contemporary labour leaders do not appreciate the efforts and ‎time-honoured ‎ culture of workers emancipation. Court orders are disregarded at will; corruption and criminality are the order of the day, a united front and national interest has been replaced by divisiveness and narrow group interest, the constitution takes a back burner or at most used to protect a few. Blackmail has replaced intellectual duels where superior arguments, logic should take pre-eminence. It is unfortunate and regrettable that people with clear intellectual challenges are the helms of some union. As sophisticated as union leadership is, the worst of us seem to be lording over the best brains in the unions.

    Suddenly, elections are held twice or more because there is no more trust within the fold, all kinds of gimmicks alien to labour movements are deployed including accreditation of none members as delegates to elections. Some leaders now orchestrate the sack of members seen as future stumbling blocks to a political calculation or aspiration. Not a few people are surprise that there is a union in the Banking industry, and members especially Nigerian daughters, sisters and mothers are being compelled to indulged in uncomplimentary acts to keep their jobs in the face of the sword of targets in a stagnant economy. Honour, agreement, discipline and other characteristics celebrated in the days of Pa Imoudu, Pa Sumonu and a host of others is gradually exiting from the union.

    We cannot afford to keep what one Minister termed “Limousine Comrades” in place.  Leaders who seek their own interest but pretend to be fighting for the masses.  There should be better and enlightened leadership at the helm of our unions.

    Our democracy and economy are exposed today because the watch dog has lost its bark and bite‎, leaving night marauders to have a field day. The ills of this era cannot be wished away if there is no paradigm shift in the way we elect our leaders. Members of the various unions must as a matter of urgency organise themselves to remove the tyrants of the day. There is a prize to be paid to put an end to impunity and corruption. The constitution should be given its place of reverence on all issues, injustice of any kind must not be allowed even if it’s being meted out to an enemy. Just as the pen is mightier than the sword; a great sword, deserves a great warrior. Nature abhors vacuum, if organised labour fails to give the masses leadership, untrained hands will take the centre stage.

    Today’s International Workers’ Day commemoration does not call for celebration, but sober reflection over the prostrate and internal damage the movement has been inflicted.

    How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land? Psalm 137:4

     

    Gambo is the convener of Good governance group and the former Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria PENGASSAN

     

     

     

  • Obasanjo counsels leaders on continuity in government

    Obasanjo counsels leaders on continuity in government

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised leaders at all levels to ensure continuity of good policies and projects in governance to aid infrastructural and human capacity development in the country.

    The former president stated this when the Good Governance Group (3Gs) led by its convener, Comrade Seyi Mohammed Gambo, paid him a courtesy visit in his Hilltop House, Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the weekend.

    Addressing members of the 3Gs Obasanjo said most of the failures witnessed in the country were caused by refusal of successive governments to continue institutional and policy frameworks and projects put in place by their predecessors.

    He cited the Operation Feed the Nation and the reforms in the rail transportation and power sectors initiated during his administrations as military head of state and later as civilian president, which could have been beneficial to Nigerians, saying they were abandoned by successive governments.

    The former President also said  the government should encourage growth of private investors and ensure that they are bigger, adding that “the bigger private operators should be able to encourage price reduction on commodities.”

    He called on the government to set up Anti-Trust Commission to protect Nigerians from oppressive big entrepreneurs, saying, “I will never go against Nigerian entrepreneurs getting big but I will go against them becoming oppressive.”

    Earlier in his speech,  Gambo said the visit was to tap from the experience of the former president on issues bordering on leadership challenges in Nigeria.

  • PENGASSAN petitions Jonathan over oil workers’ abduction

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to address the kidnapping of oil workers in the Niger Delta region with a view to guaranteeing safety of lives and property of its members.

    This was contained in a statement issued by PENGASSAN in Lagos and signed by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Seyi Gambo.

    Gambo, who said the situation is worrisome also, lamented what he described as, “seemingly uncontainable oil theft, illegal bunkering and abysmal petroleum refining which has put the oil and gas revenue prospects on the alarming brink with attendant deficit impact on the committed expenditure and capital projects across the various levels of government.”

    He called on the president to stem this ugly incident, saying the vulnerable business environment in the oil and gas industry is capable of deterring any serious investor from doing business.

    He said, “Nothing could be more pleasing than the news that government has been able to stem the nefarious acts of kidnapping and killing of innocent oil workers in the course of doing their lawful duty. The reappearance of such traumatic and daring criminal acts would worsen the preconceived Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), induced slow investment climate and divestment propensity in the Sector.”

    Gambo pointed at the recent event where two contractors were taken from the creeks including the wife of an SPDC staff from her poultry farm, while another staff member was abducted and subsequently assassinated while on a private business.

    “Workers’ fundamental rights to life, right to mobility and the right to work without fear of victimization/molestation is again being challenged. Opinion are that the Federal Government and states in the Niger Delta have relaxed their intelligence, security and law enforcement responsibility that had given room to renewed hostage taking for ransom.

    With the resurging threats to the oil and gas industry, the International Oil Companies (IOCs) have issued security alert and warnings to their employees..

    “As labour union, we will equally not shy away from our moral and constitutional role to direct our members to take cover accordingly. This may possibly lead to the withdrawal of services until the government and the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies can ensure appropriate safety and security of lives as required,” the PENGASSAN spokesman warned.

    He insisted that the association would not hesitate to withdraw it staff from duty if their safety cannot be guaranteed, saying “the association may in the above regard have no other option than to yield to the intense pressure from our members, whose lives are at risk, to withdraw their services from the industry if the security and safety of lives and that of their families could no longer be guaranteed by the government.”

     

     

     

     

  • PENGASSAN berates FG over ASUU strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has berated the federal government over the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) which has crippled academic activities in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

    In a statement issued yesterday in Lagos, PENGASSAN Public Relations Officer (PRO) says the body, “views with deep concern and discontent the ongoing and indeed a recurring strike in our nation’s ivory towers by the Academic Staff Unions of our Universities (ASUU) which has entered its 9th week without any sign of being resolved soon as parties in the crisis continue to trade blame and spoil for more actions on the matter.”

    Comrade Gambo decries the degenerating government habit of reneging on agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) freely entered into with the union and therefore urged “government to immediately refocus the nation’s budget and expenditures to priorities areas which education stands out by using this strike events to declare a State of Emergency in the Education Sector with a view to finally securing it for better rewarding future of our youths.”

    The PENGASSAN PRO who bemoans the fact that Nigerian youths are at the receiving end of the crisis said, “more worrisome is for the majority of the talented youths whose sponsors cannot afford a private or foreign school, and have rested all hope in the public schools now imagine the kind of future generation they are bound to build as they are turned out half-baked as a result of irregular and sandwiched session and curriculum.”

    He appealed to Gabriel Suswam led Committee to sheath their sword by embracing dialogue as a means of finding a lasting solution to the recurring problem of under -funding of the nation’s education, adding “This is so as education remains a major plank for sustainable development and veritable means of rediscovering the dream of the founding fathers of the nation.”

    Gambo lamented the effect of incessant strikes on the nation’s university education system, which he explained has made the country’s best University today to rank only amongst the 6,000 in the world, stressing “while most of our graduates are simply ‘unemployable’, the nation’s scarce resources are routinely frittered away through unabated sleaze and in the face of endemic corruption at all levels of governance.”

     

  • 30,000 lose jobs to oil theft

    30,000 lose jobs to oil theft

    About 30,000 workers have lost their jobs to oil theft in the past two years, the Petroluem and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has said.

    Speaking during a visit to The Nation, its spokesman, Seyi Gambo, said the affected workers are from different  segments of the industry.

    He said the decision of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to divest their stakes in the industry, among other problems,  has resulted in the loss of about 30, 000 jobs.

    Gambo said there has been confliciting reports on the issue of oil theft since 2011 when it broke out.

    “For years now we have been having problems with oil theft. In 2009, the United  Nations said that Nigeria was losing about 150,000barrels per day to illegal bunkering. It was last year that the Finance Minister said it’s about 400,000 bpd that we were losing, so that is the problem.

    “So you understand that this is a very big problem This is because Shell, Agip, Total are telling Nigerians that the process isn’t as safe as it was before, and the way we operate is not the way other unions operate because of the level of our education.”

    He said the union is doing a lot of backdoor negotations to prevent a situation whereby more people would be thrown into the labour market.

    He said the decision to award contracts to ex-militants to safeguard the waterways has not helped matter as oil theft, pipeline vandalisation among other activities continues.

  • SURE – P is an aberration – PENGASSAN

    SURE – P is an aberration – PENGASSAN

    Seyi Gambo is the Public Relations Officer of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

    He spoke with our correspondents on several issues in the oil and gas sector. Excerpts….

     

    Recently PENGASSAN gave a two- week ultimatum to the government over rising cases of oil theft, what had been the government’s response and why did you give that ultimatum?

    For years now we have been having problem with the oil theft. In 2009 the United Nations said that Nigeria was losing about 150,000 barrels per day to illegal bunkering. And it was last year that the Finance minister said it’s about 400,000 bpd that we were losing so that is the problem. This is a country where 95 per cent of our exports come from the oil sector and 80 per cent of our revenue is from this same source. So you understand that this is a very big problem and as it is now, we are losing about 30,000 of our members. This is because Shell, Agip, Total had started divestment from Nigeria .

    So we do a lot of backdoor negotiations and informal meetings. But we noticed we have to change gear now because everything we thought will happen in the future is meeting us now and then if you take 20,000 oil workers and throw them into the labour market, you know there would be problems.

    This is because as I’m seating here I’m responsible for the upkeep and welfare of about 25 of my immediate family members not to talk of friends. So these are the issues and we need to let Nigerians know and we can’t do it alone we need the people, the masses, behind us so that we can all together ask government to do what they are meant to do, which is to create an enabling environment for business to grow in the country.

    People felt that there was a sort of acrimony between NUPENG AND PENGASSAN. What do you know about that?

     There has never been any acrimony between us that I know of.

    Our space of working is different, they are junior staffs and we are senior staffs. Therefore our ways of engagement are different. At some points they might think we should go out and we might think diplomacy would be better. Two people can’t see things the same way. It’s not really a deep seated acrimony, but it’s just that we are coming from different backgrounds of engagement.

    Recently the Federal Government just awarded contract to ex-militants to safeguard the Niger Delta waterways. Measuring it with the current happenings now, do you think they been able to live up to expectations?

    They have not been able to meet up to expectations and that’s why we are where we are now. I don’t know the philosophy behind government giving them award for security of the waterways when we have the navy there, when you would expect that the navy would be enhanced to perform that role. Brazil that we started together, they have submarines there’s nothing you cannot train anybody to use now, it’s an inverted logic. If they had been doing what they are meant to do, we won’t have this problem now. Shell could do about three million barrels per day, yet we are managing to do about 1.2million barrels per day. Now they are moving between 200,000 and 300,000 bpd and it has to with their bottom-line. But our guys here don’t have anything to do but to repair pipelines and well heads.

    What do you think the government should do to safeguard this pipeline vandalization?

    If the government is sincere they won’t have this problem. I have always told people it won’t take them a month to address this problem if those in authority are willing to do it. But the problem would still persist because there are markets for these stolen products. How do you address it? You make sure you block the market and give it the kind of treatment Sierra-Leone gave the blood diamond.

    Because our oil has a signature, our oil is not a common oil, it’s not a common crude, it’s something that can be trailed it leaves trails, it’s not something you can go somewhere and refine it. So if those in government are serious and they are willing to do it they can do it. It’s something that is affecting the whole world they should be able to talk to the necessary international organs and have MOU with governments, this is because about 80 per cent of the stolen crude oil are taken abroad.

    What are your views on the controversial issue of casualization in the oil and gas sector of the Nigerian economy?

    One thing is that there are several problems in the oil and gas sector. The fact of the matter is that there’s massive unemployment in the land and it’s something we should have done years ago. But because of the environment this had become an herculean task. For instance if you meet the managing director of a firm you say okay I’m ready to regularize but I can only take 20 per cent and 80 per cent has gone, what do you do? That’s the question. Nobody is happy about it, but things are so bad that now anything is better than nothing.

    Another thing is that do you ensure that in the process of laying off the 80%, do you ensure that their severance packages are well taken care of because we have heard of several protests where people appeared on television and to said they have been sacked without entitlements. How do you people come in to ensure that doesn’t happen?

    Basically one of the problems we faced is that most of the casual workers came into the jobs with their lowest academic qualifications just for them to work. As you all know there is a limit to which a school certificate holder would work. So when they get there, they would now bring out their university certificate and those people would now say no. So there are so many issues that you know, you cannot really fight for… But if you bring anything to the union as a body, we’d fight it to the last because this is our country and there are laid out rules and we cannot because they are our members we now change the rules. But if what they bring before we know that they are being short changed in any way, you can bet that…that… that’s what we are there for.

    How have you been able to harmonize the relationship between the major marketers, the independent marketers, the tank farm owners and the jetty operators?

    You know harmonizing and regulating is not our brief. It’s actually out of our league. You see that role is for the ministry and the government to see, to get them all to work as a unit for the benefit of the country. That is really out of our own league. Our major concern is the corporate entity call Nigeria. That is to say this oil we should be able to use it for the good of masses. That even if you are not working in the industry, you will feel the positive impact of these resources in your life. I mean, if we have good rail system, we won’t be having this situation where we have trucks on the roads. It would reduce the number of accidents on the roads. You know these accidents are things that could have been avoided, if the refineries are working. All the refineries are in a very comatose state, they are always telling us that they’ve done turn around by maintenance.

    Why do you think they are not working?

    They are not working because people don’t want them to work. I mean it’s just like NITEL andjust like the Nigerian Railway. When I was checking my records I noticed these things started during Abacha’s time. So when there is a vacuum, people now come in. some people are now making money, I mean, it’s now an industry for some people to make money. They are making billions of money by the refineries not working. When you are importing, you know the kind of transactions that go on there, so it’s very hard. That’s why the minister somewhere sometime when she travelled abroad said that there’s a cabal in the industry; but it also shows that we are having people that are either clueless or they are careless. How can a minister in an industry say that there is a cabal and you cannot arrest it? You know it’s something that is very shameful. if it’s in another clan, that person would have resigned that day. When you say that there is a cabal and you cannot do anything about it. But if it is to start chasing small small thieves on the road you’d see our security agents, they would be up and doing.

    Can you to measure the performance of the  SURE-P initiative. What’s the position of your association considering what they have done until now, has it lived up to expectations?

    Well I would say personally that if we have a working government. I mean a government that lives up to his responsibility we’ll not have things like SURE-P. In other words SURE-P is an aberration.

    Is there a way forward in all these?

    There’s a way forward, that’s what we are saying, that look, the future of Nigeria lies in our hands. We have to stand up and let our voices be heard. And when there’s a need for action, we must be counted; we must come out and be counted. And now we’re… we are having symbiotic relationship with other organizations outside the union, the NGO and the civil society groups because we’re all Nigerians.

    There’s nothing that happens in one sector that does not affect all of us. Look at the problem in the health sector, you see Nigerians, the ones that can afford it, they are going to India. For schooling our people are now heading to Ghana and Togo. These are things that you can never imagine would happen in Nigeria. We are a major oil producing nation and not only oil we have other natural endowments. We also have very brilliant people here, and, but look at the mess we have found ourselves in.

    And your strike, is it likely to happen?

    As it is now, one of the problems we’ve been having, as I said earlier on is the modus operandi of each union, each body is different. We believe in a lot of engagements, so that by the time we cry out people would see that these people really have a case. And when your government tells you that they are going to do something and as a citizen, an average citizen, you should trust them. But now that trust… that credit is almost done with and that’s why we are out coming now.

    We have myriads of problems. There are some that can be done immediately, there are some that be done in months, you know, but even the ones that can be done in months or in years. But you’d know that they’ve started. But what we are saying is if they are not taking concrete efforts to address these issues, I mean, anything can happen… anything can happen.

    Talking about the way forward, PIB is one of them, so what’s you take on the subject?

    Yes, we have made our presentations on the PIB. And this week we are making another presentation to the Senate. And our take on the issue is that we are nationalistic, we are neither the IOC’s nor the marketers.

    Which one is IOC?

    What we are looking for is what would make Nigeria get the maximum benefits for these resources that God has blessed us with. Looking at the points that we raised about the power that they are giving to the minister of petroleum; we asked them to look at the best model in the world, anywhere in the world and give it to us. Let’s even imagine that this minister means well, you’ll have one minister that would be mischievous and misuse these thing, so it’s not… it’s not done. You know, we’ve have told them our decision, that government should hands off many of these things ,like the refinery if you need major repairs you have to go to Abuja. I mean there should be money for the man there to be able to do it.

    What do you think the federal government should do concerning revenue generated from exportation of oil since major buyer America has found an alternative?

    Well as we have said before know there is a disconnect between the revenue generated and what they do with the money. We expect that from the revenue generated from the oil and gas, we should see more things on the ground but there is nothing on ground to show for our oil exporting activities. There is power, there is road, there is education, there are so many things that you can do with this revenue and go to Saudi Arabia and you now wonder you know..That’s why I always laugh when people say that we are more religious than the pope. Go to Saudi Arabia look at how they take care of their citizens, look at Libya before the fall of Gaddafi, all the people were enjoying, we have no business being poor. Anytime I am on the streets and I see these hawking adults, children of school age and young teenagers, I feel bad, it’s painful because you know they have no business being on the streets. If we have responsible leaders. You know, even a blind man can tell what they should do with this money. You know but they are keeping it in foreign accounts, they are not even accounting for it and there is no accountability for the revenues. Do you know as it is now the NNPC don’t even know how much fuel the IOC pump in a day.

    Let me just talk about your purposed strike, there is this talk that each time you call for a strike, your executive, your top people they go behind to connive with government and short-change Nigerians how true is that?

    I know that you are referring to the last subsidy strike and let me tell you this about PENGASSAN. From all the people I know in PENGASSAN – from my president to all the executives, they are patriots and they will not take blood money. Anybody that takes that kind of money collects blood money and I can tell you that my president will not do that. All the people that took the money or those that were alleged to have collected it have not come out to say that they did not take it. Go and do your research you will see what I mean.