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Nigeria: Nupeng Predicts More Crisis in Delta
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This Day (Lagos)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Patrick Ugeh
Abuja
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has raised the alarm that unless the issue of Nigerian workers in multinational oil companies, whom it accuses of turning to slaves, is addressed the current crisis in the Niger Delta might be a child's play in the future.
NUPENG's national president, Comrade Peter Akpatason,who led executive members of the union to the Minister of State for Energy, Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, therefore appealed to the government to resolve the problem to forestall the likely consequences.
But Ajumogobia said because the problem had taken so long in the making, it could not be solved by this administration.
The labour leader also urged the government to bring a quick end to the violence in the Niger Delta, saying: "The situation in that place has reached a level that is almost unbearable for our people.
For us who are workers in the Niger Delta area, our lives are under threat on a daily basis. We are losing our members.Some are getting maimed, some are getting killed. And we believe it is only the government that can handleit. We're still ready to make contribution towards meaningful attempts to solve it." Noting that the solution must be home-grown, involvingall stakeholders, Akpatason warned:
"Withoutaddressing the Niger Delta problem, there is nosolving the Nigerian problem." The minister promised to look into most of theproblems, but complained that the Niger Delta hadnever been treated as a special area although thisfact was recognised before Independence. "I'll be very interested in your position paper on theNiger Delta," he said.
"It's well documented and thedocumentation goes back to pre-independence when theregion was identified as a special area. It has neverbeen treated as a special area, and I think that is atthe heart of the issue.
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"I think it's only in recenttimes that it has been recognised pretty muchuniversally by all Nigerians that some specialintervenention needs to occur in that area. Now thenature of intervention that should occur in that areais such that it will take time."This problem is 50 years in the making and clearlycannot be solved in the life of this administration.Or maybe in the next. But I think the important thingis that this administration has identified it as oneof the key challenges it has to surmount.", he said. He said what the people of the area want was evidencethat the past is the past and the future would bebrighter. "Once that is clearly demonstrated, the tension willreduce and the threat to your workers who are innocentvictims of this neglect that has been happening overseveral decades, will reduce," he said.
"We'll be ableto work harmoniously in the communities. Basically,what has been the issue is anger; it's anger andfrustration, derived from lack of opportunity. Whenanger is not contained, it lashes out at anythingaround it."They're seen as part of this establishment that isspoiling the environment, not giving themopportunity," he said.Ajumogobia said Nigeria would continue to importpetroleum products for a while because it takes timeto build refineries, adding that laws in the petroleumsector were being reviewed preparatory to the reformsin the area.
He said the policy of succession whichwas introduced in the 80's to check the abuse ofexpatriate quota had derailed.The NUPENG president said while the workers appreciatethe effort of government, he said it needed to do morethan it was currently doing so that the issue could beproperly looked into with a view to getting aresolution.On the treatment of Nigerians by the international oilcompanies, Akpatason said: "A lot of them have decidedto turn Nigerians to slaves in the name of contractstaffing. Virtually 60-70 per cent of workers in theoil and gas industry, particularly (the junior ones),are now casual workers. When we took up the issue sometime ago, people accused us of selfishness since itaffected union dues but that is not the problem.
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