The state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has released details of its recruitment exercise ahead of the nationwide protest scheduled to start on August 1, 2024.
Most Nigerians see recruitment into the oil company as ‘exclusive’ vacancies for the children of highly influenced political class.
The planned protest was planned over economic hardship and bad governance by Nigerians. Their demands include reverting the petrol prices to N100 per litre and requiring children of all public office holders, including politicians to attend public schools.
But in what some Nigerians described as shocking, the NNPC Limited posted on its social media handle on Friday, stating, “We are hiring! Are you passionate about building an exciting career in NNPC Limited?”
The state oil company directed interested Nigerians to apply through its official application portal at careers.nnpcgroup.com.
Unfortunately, the application page could not be found at this publication. Most of the commenters on the page said the recruitment exercise was to calm the nerves of angry youths who have vowed to storm the streets to protest against hardship across the country.
InfomediaNG found that the last time the oil company tried to recruit was in 2019, when applicants who were not highly ‘connected’ expressed frustration after the test.
During the 2019 exercise, an applicant said he never received an update about the test five years later.
“I remember my friends and I going all the way to Yaba for a test in 2019. Till date, none of us got anything from NNPC, not a score test, not an interview call, not a rejection notice. I remember an older friend telling us “they are joking with you guys”.
Meanwhile, most Nigerians see the sudden recruitment exercise as a ploy to distract Nigerians who are planning to protest against bad governance.
Protesters are demanding that:
the government should reduce petrol prices to N100. It is currently between N700-N750
government address insecurity and hunger
the government should investigate the N355 billion allocated to the INEC and want complete independence of the electoral body by implementing electoral reform.
immediate release of the #EndSARS protesters who were arrested in 2020.
minimum living wage should be N300,000
fee education from primary to secondary school
children of politicians and public office holders to attend public schools.
politicians should patronize locally made goods.
Nigeria should abolish bicameralism, replacing it with a single legislative house at the federal level (unicameral legislature), and
corrupt officials should be probed.
While President Bola Tinubu and state governors expressed fear that the protest might lead to anarchy, Human Rights Activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has warned the Tinubu-led government not to threaten the protesters as such could worsen the situation.
He called on the government to first identify the organisers of the protest, “then engage with them productively,” stating on Channels TV that threats would not work, “In fact, on some occasions, the desperation of the government also has a way of popularising such protests.”