Coalition Seeks Buhari, N’Assembly’s Intervention in NNPC’s Recruitment Exercise

By Sunday Okobi

A coalition, Transparency in Public Service Recruitment Project (TPSRP), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva to direct the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to conclude the 2019/2020 Experienced Hire Recruitment exercise by contacting all successful candidates based on merit.

The recruitment exercise, the group noted, was the brain child and vision of the immediate-past Group Managing Director of NNPC, the late Dr. Maikanti Baru.

The coalition of 17 civil society groups lamented in a letter addressed to the President Buhari, the Senate, the House of Representatives and others that after concluding the oral interview for the recruitment exercise on July 11, 2019, a total of1050 successful candidates for the Graduate Trainee cadre were contacted on February 14, 2020 and offered employment, while till date, the candidates for the Experienced Hire Cadre have not been contacted by the NNPC.

According to the group in the letter, signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Tamunotonye I. Cookey-Gam and Mohammed Abdul Qayyum Sandamu, respectively, which was made available to THISDAY at the weekend, “NNPC should conclude the Experienced Hire Recruitment Exercise within the next 15 working days failing which the TPSRP and its members would organise itself and take appropriate actions.

“NNPC should honour the vision and legacy of Mallam Maikanti Kachallah Baru who is one of the most quintessential and honourable gentlemen to ever grace the office of the Group Managing Director of NNPC by concluding the Experienced Hire Recruitment Exercise in a transparent manner based on merit.

The group noted that its investigations revealed that many candidates undertook onerous financial burdens – to cover their feeding, accommodation and transport to Abuja from different parts of Nigeria and outside Nigeria to enable them participate in NNPC’s oral interview “because of their hope and optimism that at the end of the recruitment exercise, the NNPC jobs would reward their financial and physical sacrifices.

“Unfortunately, till date, candidates who are hopeful of being recruited into the Experienced Hire Cadre of NNPC have not been apprised of their status in the recruitment exercise. This is happening weeks after the successful Graduate Trainees have assumed office in the corporation thereby leaving Experienced Hire candidates in limbo.”