NNPC crisis shows Nigerians are resistant to change

Kachikwu made the announcement on Tuesday, March 8, and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) decided on the strike the same day.

According to the unions, they were upset because the minister didn’t carry them along in making the decision.

“We do not accept any unilateral and arbitrary restructuring. The minister cannot restructure NNPC without carrying all stakeholders along. The minister cannot run the industry as a private estate. He must carry all Nigerians along,” a spokesman for PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa told Premium Times.

“With such a massive decision-making, a lot of things would be affected, particularly its implication on workers interest. We are unaware of what is happening. It is not fair that the workers are hearing about the restructuring in the media just like every other person. He is just creating unnecessary confusion in the polity,” he added.

However, despite the fact that Mr Okugbawa claims to be acting in the interest of all Nigerians, the strike was in fact a selfish act meant to secure the unions’ interests and no one else’s.

This is because the action has worsened the fuel shortage in the country and thrown Nigerians into even more misery.

Did NUPENG and PENGASSAN hold a meeting with Kachikwu and get rebuffed before going on strike? No. Did they ask the minister for an explanation before taking matters into their own hands? No.

The unions saw an opportunity to hold the government, and all Nigerians, to ransom and they took it without asking thereby worsening an already terrible situation.

After the shutdown of NNPC facilities, Kachikwu told Reuters that he would meet with the workers immediately to resolve the issues and explain that the split was just an attempt to reorganize the company and nothing more.

“We are going to have a meeting with them right now. I don't want the industry shut down - I am going now to resolve the issues very soon,” he said.

The oil workers could’ve gotten this explanation before going on strike and saved the country all the hassle that the shutdown has caused.

The NNPC crisis is also a sign of a much deeper problem that’s plaguing Nigeria; a resistance to change.

Nigerians keep reminding President Muhammadu Buhari that he promised them change, “Where’s the change?” they keep asking. Yet every time the president or any member of his administration tries to do something different, they scream “No! Goodluck Jonathan did it better!”

The entire situation is reminiscent of the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites, who, despite being freed from slavery, could only think of the Egyptian onions they could no longer have.

No change worth making is easy, none whatsoever. According to bestselling author, Robin Sharma, “All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and so gorgeous at the end.”

James Belasco and Ralph Stayer also said in their book “Flight of the Buffalo” that “Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.”

This is not an attempt to absolve the Buhari government of blame, but if Nigerians want change, they must give it a real chance. If we keep resisting every slight modification to the status quo and bringing up the past, we are unlikely to move forward as a country.

As John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

May the Nigeria of the future be better than the Nigeria of the past and that of the present. God bless Nigeria.