By Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke

ABUJA— THE Senate, yesterday, threw its weight behind the Federal Government’s unbundling of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, saying the government did not breach the law establishing the corporation.

The Senate

The lawmakers also asked Nigerians to support the minister to succeed in solving the problems currently affecting Nigeria as a country, adding that the support became imperative because they discovered, after the session with him, that the staff would not be shortchanged or sacked.

According to the Senate, the minister, having apologized for failing to consult with them, decided to sheath their swords and work with him for the interest of the country.

It said from the figure given to them by the NNPC, the organization was making about N30 billion loss every month before the re-organisation, which had now been reduced to only $3 billion.

Senate reprimands Kachikwu

The Senate, however, reprimanded the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for not consulting with the upper chambers prior to the announcement of government’s proposed plan to restructure the NNPC.

It also asked the Petroleum Minister (State) to feel free with the lawmakers when the need arose.

Senate’s position was taken, yesterday when Kachikwu appeared before the Senate Joint Committees on Petroleum Resources, Upstream; Downstream and that of Gas in response to the summon to answer questions on the new policy to unbundle the NNPC.

The panel was co-chaired by the Chairman, Petroleum Upstream, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, APC, Ondo Central; Acting Chairman Petroleum Downstream, Senator Barau Jibrin, APC, Kano North and Chairman Committee on Gas, Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, PDP, Akwa Ibom North -East.

Addressing journalists at the end of the closed door session, Chairman, Petroleum Upstream, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, APC, Ondo Central said:   “We have a very useful interactive session with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. We wanted to know how he arrived at what he did at the NNPC, but he clarified the issue that he was not unbundling NNPC because it is an entity that was created by an Act of the National Assembly and nobody can touch it unless he comes back to the National Assembly for amendments.

“But having looked at what he did and the presentation he made to us, and having considered the welfare of staff of NNPC and those working in the subsidiaries that were affected by the reorganization that he has done in the sector, we found out that one, the staff would not be shortchanged, that no staff will be deprived of his employment.

‘’We also found out that he had not contravened the law because we were worried that he might be acting against the law, but having looked at the law with him, we found that he did not contravene it.

“We also told him that he ought to have done more consultation with the National Assembly for which he apologized and he said that henceforth, more consultations will be done. We feel that he is working in the best interest of Nigeria.

NNPC makes N30bn loss every month

“We want all Nigerians to support him so that we can get out of the mess we have found ourselves in this country today. One good thing today is that the price of fuel is going up and if we don’t do the reorganization when we are in trouble, it may be difficult for us to do anything when the price goes up.

“What the minister has done is the internal reorganization of NNPC. From the figure given to us by the NNPC, the organization is making about N30 billion  losses every month. If we continue like that, there is no time we are going to get out of the whole thing which we have found ourselves.

“With the gradual reorganization that the minister has been doing, the loss of the NNPC as at last month was only N3 billion. He is already assuring us that by July 2016, we would have got to a level that NNPC will not be making losses any longer and the only way to do it is to put all hands on the plough. Let everybody work for his pay. Let there be no fat cow that will just suck without contributing anything.”

I was misunderstood—Kachikwu

Earlier, Kachikwu, who told the senators that he was misunderstood on the issue of unbundling the NNPC, said the existing situation in Nigeria was quite serious and that the oil sector was trying to move at a very fast pace.

Kachikwu, who noted that there were about 17 subsidiaries in the system, said some were active because they were in public space, adding, also, that the pipeline and depot aspect were drowning the business.

He said:  “I may have been misunderstood but it won’t be business as usual, we will create new career paths and accountability for people.

“We are going into a threshold where the majors are turning into a major focus. When I first joined, I set up 20 teams that dealt with 20 fixes. I have issued about 10,000 podcasts explaining what we are doing and where we are headed. We are moving at a very fast pace. I worked on this issue with the President and we kept it as confidential as we could.”

Kachikwu reiterated that what his ministry did was not unbundling  but restructuring and refuted claims by a senator that the exercise was effected without the approval of a board and the Federal Executive Council, as stated elsewhere in the Act.