The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has raised concerns over the increasing influx of expatriates, particularly Indians, into Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. PENGASSAN President, Mr. Festus Osifo, expressed his alarm during the closing ceremony of the 3rd Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja on Friday, emphasizing that many of these foreign workers are occupying low-level positions, which constitutes a clear violation of the expatriate quota system.
Osifo highlighted the union’s ongoing but fruitless engagement with the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board to resolve this issue. He called for urgent government intervention to prevent companies from exploiting the expatriate quota system at the expense of Nigerian workers. “In Sterling Oil today, it is shocking to see that the number of Indian employees surpasses that of Nigerians,” he remarked. “Indians are even employed in roles as basic as vulcanizers, plant operators, and gatekeepers, while our graduates are left jobless.”
He further alleged that some companies have been manipulating the system by registering numerous businesses to facilitate the continuous importation of Indian workers. “They bring in expatriates under one company, and then, the next day, they use another company to bring in more. This has led to a situation where hundreds of companies are involved in spreading these foreign workers across the sector,” Osifo explained.
PENGASSAN has spent the last two years engaging in discussions with various stakeholders to address this growing problem, but without success. Osifo warned that if the situation does not improve, the union might be forced to take more confrontational actions. “We are prepared to act because we cannot become second-class citizens in our own country. Nigeria’s oil resources are meant to benefit Nigerians, not foreign companies like Sterling.”
He also pointed out that the situation at Indorama’s facilities in Port Harcourt is particularly troubling, as the number of Indian workers there outnumbers Nigerians, with the expatriates receiving their salaries in U.S. dollars, further compounding the economic disparity caused by currency devaluation.
Osifo urged the Federal Government to swiftly address these issues to safeguard the rights and opportunities of Nigerian workers, emphasizing that the current situation is untenable and must be rectified immediately.
