The Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) Worldwide, has said the on-going employment exercise into the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is skewed to favour more people from the North than those from the Niger Delta region.
Barrister Pereotubo R. Oweilaemi, IYC President, in a statement on Sunday, said the group had been informed by competent sources within the NNPC that not more than 10 persons from Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States put together featured in the list, while states in the Northern and Western parts of the country got more than 20 slots each.
He said the IYC rejected the exercise, which he termed as discriminatory and nepotic, wondering why the Ijaw nation, which had been feeding the country with its mineral deposits barely had five slots in the whole list, while 20 persons from the North alone were shortlisted.
Oweilaemi said: “For the avoidance of doubt, NNPC should immediately publish the list of shortlisted candidates in the dailies for the world to see the truth. We have it on good authority that the agency refuses to publish the list because of the disparities associated in the process.
“To perfect it’s divisive and apartheid employment process, the NNPC has resolved to surreptitiously call the shortlisted candidates for interview in order to cover up its fraudulent and nepotistic agenda, just like what other agencies have been doing under this Buhari’s regime.
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“It’s either the agency publishes the list of shortlisted candidates for the world to see its sincerity, or we enjoin Nigerians to hold Dr. Maikanti Baru and the cabals in the presidency responsible for any crisis in the oil sector.
“The goose that lays the golden egg can no longer be an onlooker in the sharing of the dividends from the black gold which is being taken from our lands at the detriment of the people’s lives.
“Enough is enough. If there is any disparity in the process then we call on the GMD to immediately correct it before publishing the shortlisted list. Doing that will in no doubt guarantee peace in the oil sector.
“The oil producing states cannot take less. Rather, special consideration should be given to these environmentally devastated and economically pauperised oil bearing states. That is the only panacea to address this injustice.”
