By Sharon Faliya Cham

For those of you who probably don't know the meaning of PENGASSAN, it is an acronym for Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria. By the privilege of working in Nigeria's oil and gas sector, they are a set of over-pampered and over-paid workers whose contribution to Nigeria's economic development is nothing different from the PDP's contribution to Nigeria's ruin.

We have always had PENGASSAN, yet Nigeria's oil refineries have not been working for close to 20 years; we have always had PENGASSAN, yet Nigeria has been suffering from the worst form of oil thefts in the world; we have always had PENGASSAN, yet we don't know the difference between oil thieves and oil workers, and we have always had PENGASSAN, yet we don't know those who teach pipeline vandals the routes of our pipelines and how to break the pipes! In short, it is extremely difficult to measure the usefulness of PENGASSAN to the country, but yet they are the best paid set of workers in Nigeria. National Assembly members may just be ahead of them because of their wardrobe and jeep allowances!

Out of the blues, PENGASSAN claims it has ordered its members to embark on an indefinite strike from Thursday, July 7, 2016, which will ultimately result in the disruption of petrol supplies from depots to the various fuel stations across the country. Mind you, the petrol is imported and not the result of any domestic production by members of PENGASSAN!

And why are they embarking on this strike? PENGASSAN says it is striking to compel government to speed up work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB); to stop the sacking of petroleum industry workers, and other blah blah blah reasons that are as puerile as any blah blah blah can be!

For the past 12 years or so, the PIB has been in the burner of Nigeria's parliament without any serious commitment from both the parliament and the executive branch to pass that bill into law but we have never ever seen nor heard PENGASSAN calling for, or going on strike to compel its passage. So, why now? And about sacking of oil workers, can PENGASSAN really determine how many workers any oil company - whether private or government owned - can maintain at any given time?

Without doubt, PENGASSAN must have been beneficiaries of the serious rot, thefts and corruption that have jointly wrecked Nigeria's oil industry over the years, and it is only natural that they will not be happy with the anti-corruption efforts of this administration in cleaning that sector. While their godfathers and godmothers have unleashed the Niger Delta Avengers to bomb-off our crude oil capacity and to stymie the war against corruption, PENGASSAN on the other hand have been unleashed to disrupt even the distribution of petroleum products imported from overseas without their productive input!

If not, why are they striking over puerile reasons?

The PMB revolution that survived "Boko Haram" shall survive this too!

God bless Nigeria!

How old is the avengers

The silly pengassan betrayed nlc and Nigerians by supporting buhari to increase fuel prices without palliatives. Now they have been scammed by the propaganda govt.

They have not seen something

Laugh wan burst my head when I get to this;

Coolgent:

Out of the blues, PENGASSAN claims it has ordered its members to embark on an indefinite strike from Thursday, July 7, 2016, which will ultimately result in the disruption of petrol supplies from depots to the various fuel stations across the country. Mind you, the petrol is imported and not the result of any domestic production by members of PENGASSAN!

wordcat:
Laugh wan burst my head when I get to this;

Nothing is no longer impossible in Nigeria! !