There is no hidden political motives behind the planned deployment of some staff members from Abuja back to Lagos, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has clarified.
The Commission in a statement in Abuja on Friday said the decision was informed by the exigency of providing adequate office accommodation to staff, to create a conducive working environment for them.
The Commission said lack of office space for staff to work in was one of the fundamental issues raised by the local branch of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) when they protested for three days in 2023 against management.
The Commission said since the protest, the issue has remained a cardinal concern the staff wanted addressed immediately, even as the construction of the corporate headquarters building by the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) near the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters is still uncompleted.
Even the rented apartment in Utako, the Commission pointed out, has not helped the accommodaton challenge, as it is inadequate to accommodate workers from the defunct DPR headquarters in Lagos and field offices in major oil producing states whose operations were eventually moved to Abuja.
The problem, the Commission said, worsened when the defunct DPR metamorphosed into NUPRC, with the merger of other subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited with the Commission and the staff moved to Abuja.
“The only property available to accommodate the staff was the Abuja regional office at Jabi, which now serves as the NUPRC Corporate headquarters. An additional office space was rented in Utako where some of the staff that moved in from the field offices moved into. It was expected that with the verification exercise and movement of designated staff to the Nigerian Midstream/Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the completion of the corporate headquarters completed. The operations of the Commission is expanding, requiring more staff. Workers started complaining about the inconducive work environment as they are packed into cubicles at the temporary offices in Abuja, especially at the headquarters. It was one of the major for last year’s showdown with management.
“When it became obvious that the permanent headquarters building is not likely going to be ready soon and with the fact that some staff would be better off in the regional/field offices, especially in Lagos where the critical facilities, including laboratories, are domiciled, it was therefore proposed that the relevant units should decide on the category of staff that would be more operationally functional in the outstations, for possible deployment.
“The proposal was out of expediency, to address the concerns of the workers as clearly indicated in their protest letter to management. It has nothing to do with the supervising ministry, not in the least the Presidency nor President Tinubu,” the Commission explained.
