PENGASSAN : A culture of impunity…

By Joseph Edgar…

We have woken up to another round of fuel scarcity occasioned by the strike called out by the PENGASSAN which happens to be the umbrella body for senior staff in the Oil Industry. What we have gleaned is the fact that they have called a nationwide strike to protest the apparent sacking of a Branch Manager by his firm over some undisclosed issue. We have also learned that the meeting called by the Minister of State for Petroleum to resolve the issue has ended in stalemate and as such over 180million people will go through the difficulties and torture that comes with fuel scarcity.

For want of a stronger phrase to use, this is crass impunity and utter disrespect of the responsibility that comes with this kind of unbridled access to power. That this grouping at some point of our national history formed the bulwark for the struggle against military dictatorship and the instalment of democracy leaves one with an irritating bile for there is nothing about this grouping that smirks of common sense and the interest of the general population.

So one puny Chairman is sacked for whatever reasons, the national body now feels that the best way to resolve the matter is to stick to his being recalled failure which they have taken this stance. This is utter bunkum and i feel just this once that we should call their bluff. Let us remain on the fuel queues for as long as it is possible to break their strike through effective resistance to this arbitrariness.

This reminds me of one of my colleagues. She was the major marketer with direct control of over 70% of depositors’ funds. She knew right away that she had become a sacred cow and as such unleashed on us a reign of terror. She made her own rules and lived by them not caring how it affected the cohesion of the team. At Executive meetings when her unruliness was brought up, I would push for her sack and everybody will cringe for they were not bold enough to face the dire consequences of the decision.
The fear was real because once she lost her job the deposit would leave with her and this could possibly lead to the collapse of the firm.

Read also: What We Learnt From Judgment On Anambra Central

So we continued to condone and even treat her with kid gloves. One day she came after me. She wanted to be appointed Executive Director in my stead. She did not understand why she had to report to me since she was responsible for most of the funds in the system. Management considered the option and I was called into a meeting where I was informed that they would have to appoint her Executive Director Northern region. I was reminded that I could not resist for obvious reasons and that the other option was to allow me go. I told them very clearly that I would rather leave than having her as a contemporary and I warned them that if they thought she was after only me then they were inhaling something else. I warned them that she was coming towards them riding on the back of funds that did not belong to her that she even met in the system although she had deepened the relationship and grown the fund.

Luckily they saw reasons with me and asked what we should do. I said we should call her bluff and ask her to leave while sending a powerful delegation to the clients which was a religious body explaining to them very clearly why they still had to leave the fund with us. Her response was swift and dangerous, she immediately sent a letter for total withdrawal we were talking of about 700m. We immediately responded by moving towards the client who were surprised because the letter did not emanate from them. We worked out a payment Plan with them and then came back to ask her to leave.

She was not going to leave quietly, she petitioned Rev. Father Matthew Kuka panel that was then listening to cases of injustice. You see how far a bully can go to assert a pound of flesh. Well, lastly she was escorted out of the premises by security in shame.
That is wat I want us to do to these PENGASSAN people for they are just bullies playing with our lives over a tiny boil.

We should stare them in the face and send them off the golgotha. The Federal Government should stop all negotiations, the affected oil firm should not recall that person and we should all hunker down and brave the storm. There are processes of seeking redress if it is true that their member has been unfairly treated and even if the issues was unfair working conditions or any such type labour issues then the courts for arbitration and other allied platforms are at their disposal instead of lazily jumping at a strike each time their leadership wakes up on the other side of his bed.

Me, I am tired of this intransigence and will not go queue for fuel but rather will stay in my house and work offsite on my system as my own way of calling their bluff. For them to be toying with an economy that is just coming out of a recession, which caused the loss of thousands of jobs then they should be treated for what they are, economic saboteurs.

My pleas this morning is for Nigerians to this once say NO to these bullies and stand down their arbitrariness. Enough is enough and as my friend charly boy will say, ‘’our mumu don do’’.

 

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