Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Applicants who participated in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) 2019 recruitment exercise have appealed to the National Assembly to prevail on the Corporation to release its recruitment list.
The concerned applicants said 19 months after the exercise was too long a time for NNPC management to still hold onto the list of successful applicants, expressing worry that underground employments and nepotism could have been responsible for the delay.
It could be recalled that the Corporation had earlier this year said in a statement that it has concluded the recruitment exercise.
But applicants under the ‘Experienced Hires’ category who demanded fairness urged the Corporation to release the list of successful candidates in the category for the 400 vacant positions advertised “to enable them to resume work just like they did for the Graduate trainees.
“As we speak some of the Experienced Hires candidates who have been waiting have lost their jobs and COVID-19 pandemic is biting hard on us.”
The Coordinator and spokesperson of the concerned job applicants, Mr Chukwunoso Eze and Ade Olanyika respectively, who led some members to newsmen in Enugu, said the last time they heard something from the NNPC management on the recruitment was in June 2020 and it was not appealing.
The Group Managing Director, Mr. Mele Kyari, they said had in answer to a question about the recruitment said that “the process will be concluded soon” which brought more frustration to their plight.
They said, “The continued silence on the outcome of the 2019 experienced hires component of the recruitment smacks of suspicion and corruption. It is being alleged that the NNPC GMD is sitting on the list of the experienced hires who are successful while organizing secret interviews for other candidates who did not go through the recruitment process.
“The shabby handling of the NNPC 2019 recruitment process does not only amounts to a disgrace to the corporation’s recruitment process standards judging by global best practices, it is also doing a huge disservice to the Nigerian professionals who are ready to do their own bit, and it creates the feeling that the President’s lofty promises of creating jobs for the unemployed and underemployed youths is merely a lip service.”