By Monsuru Olowoopejo
In a bid to ensure workers rededicate themselves to growth and development of the agency, the Nigerian National Corporation (NNPC) has promoted and redeployed others to ensure improved productivity at work in its offices across the country.
It also disclosed that professional competence, transparency, accountability, national spread were parameters greatly considered before embarking on promotion and redeployment as well as for recruitment of staff including 1,050 graduate trainees that have assumed office virtually due to the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Country.
Explaining the parametres, NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, in a statement made available to newsmen, said that the experiences of the long-time employees of NNPC were not dissimilar to those of the new intakes into the corporation.
Obateru added that professional competence, adherence to the principle of transparency and accountability informed the recent top management appointment executed recently.
According to him, the principle of federal character was also a factor in the progression of the newly appointees and that many top management officers of the corporation were moved to new positions while some were promoted based on their verifiable track records of performance, saying some Chief Operating Officers, Group General Managers and Managing Directors of subsidiaries were affected in what some industry analysts described as the most objective placement exercise in the recent history of the National Oil Company.
Topping the list of the changes, he said, was the re-deployment of the erstwhile Chief Operating Officer (COO), Upstream, Roland Ewubare, to the Ventures and Business Development Directorate as COO and would lay groundwork for the corporation to take up new business opportunities and challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 impasse.
“The new position would also see Ewubare traversing Downstream, Midstream and Upstream sectors to develop new business ventures for the corporation”.
Obateru said Ewubare’s position as COO Upstream was taken over by Engr. Adeyemi Adetunji, erstwhile Chief Operating Officer in charge of Downstream directorate.
Adeyemi, who joined NNPC in January 2011 as the General Manager, Transformation Office, leading a team of NNPC and International Consultants to implement NNPC’s earlier developed corporate vision and strategic plans, was from the South West region of the Country.
The Group Public Affairs Officer nited that managerial changes was also spiced with the appointment of a North East indigene, Bala Wunti, the erstwhile Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company as the new GGM of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).
Also redeployed by the corporation was Lawal Sade and his expected to bring his wealth of experience to boost work in the corporation with his appointment as Managing Director of the NNPC Trading Company, a subsidiary of corporation.
Obateru stated that while others were redeployed, the corporation retained Adokiye Tombomieye, from the South-South, as Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing, a highly strategic position in the corporation.
The NNPC spokesperson explained that the beauty of the new wave of appointments in NNPC depicted a leadership of the corporation determined and bent on ensuring placement of square pegs in square holes, while not losing sight of geographical spread, in respect of staffing.
On the graduate trainees, he noted that the fairness in appointment of the new employees was such that many of the new employees expressed astonishments after securing employment in the National Oil Company without any prior recommendations from influential citizens of the country.
In the statement, Obateru relayed the testimonies of a few of the Graduate Trainees including Oluwatobi Yusuf, a Lagos resident, who NNPC providing an equal level playing field for all participants during the recruitment exercise.
Another employee, Onianwa Vin-Kingsley, who described NNPC recruitment process as excellently remarkable, urged other private and government institutions to emulate the national oil firm in order to inspire confidence in Nigeria youths.
Also, Onyeulo Ikenna, a First Class graduate of Chemical Engineering, said despite the rigorous online application process for the NNPC job which almost deterred him from applying, he was impressed that employment was given without preferences.
Enyi Ada, a resident of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, noted that NNPC’s employment journey ended her negativity perception on how recruitment processes were conducted in Nigeria public organisations, saying, inspite the Novel Coronavirus, the corporation was able to conclude the process seamlessly.
And for Bolarinwa Simeon, a Civil Engineer, who also was not expected to be considered for employment based on rumours, noted that the entire NNPC recruitment process was transparent and credible from the computer-based test to the interview.
For Suleiman Mahmud, whose journey to NNPC employment was said to be miraculous after applying on the last day of the application exercise, hinted that the employment offer from NNPC aided the quick recovery of her sick mother from an aged-long ailment.
The 1,050 graduate trainees were recently recruited by the NNPC and assumed duty virtually on Monday 4 May, 2020, due to the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Country.
