• “We seized the opportunity because no one knows what comes next, workers reveal”
By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA
An unprecedented wave of voluntary exits is sweeping through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as scores of employees embrace generous early retirement packages amid growing uncertainty over their future in the corporation, Business Hallmark can report.
The initiative, structured under the Accelerated Exit Scheme (AES) and the Voluntary Exit Scheme (VES), BH findings revealed, is attracting massive interest from employees.
According to sources in the corporation, who spoke on the matter, over 70 per cent of eligible staff have signed up for the voluntary retirement programme.
Documents seen by our correspondent showed that while the AES targets employees with up to one year left to retirement, the VES covers staff due for statutory retirement in 2027.
Also targeted are SS1-grade employees with about two to five years remaining before retirement in 2028 and 2030.
According to the management of the corporation, the ongoing reform is a strategic and non-coercive one designed to align its workforce with long-term transformation goals, improve efficiency and create space for younger professionals.
There are, however, concerns in some quarters that some categories of staff are under immense pressure to exit the company.
In spite of concerns of an ongoing systematic but forceful staff rationalisation exercise in the company and calls by labour unions to resist it, BH gathered that many concerned workers are not ready for a fight, or leave their fate to chances, especially those in the moribund refineries.
One Policy, Two Outcomes
It was learnt that while the financial incentives attached to the retirement programme are highly attractive, many employees accepted the offers less because of the money and more because of fears that they could face less favourable conditions if they remained on their desks.
Several workers, who spoke to our correspondent on the matter, viewed the package as the safest option in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
A pipe fitter/boilermaker engineer with the corporation, who spoke with our correspondent on the matter on the condition of anonymity, declared that the deal he was offered was ‘too good to be ignored’.
“As you know, things are no longer the same in the corporation. Gone are the days when workers in the employment of the company live like kings. We now have a ‘Pharaoh that does not know Joseph’ in the present administration of President Bola Tinubu, who is bent on dismantling the NNPC as it it presently constituted.
“The corporation is being dismantled, broken into several agencies. We now have new entities like the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Agency (NMDPRA) with different managements from the old NNPC.
“To worsen the matter, NNPC can no longer spend some of the revenues it used to earn from oil and gas businesses.
The money now goes directly into the Federation Account.
“And we learnt the government is not yet done with the corporation. That they are going to privatise it’s business making arms like they did with the NLNG.
“That’s why we took advantage of the juicy exit offer because nobody is certain of their continued future in the company”, the worker stated.
Other workers in the corporation who opted for early retirement shared the same sentiment. According to some of the workers, who volunteered to speak, staffers, who decide to leave now, instead of waiting to retire when they attain the official retirement age of 60 years, are assured of an enhanced package.
Irresistible Package
“For those that are willing to leave early, there is an enhanced package for them. They will be paid the years left for them to serve in full, apart from other perks like redundancy allowance.
“Some of us have decided to take advantage of this enhanced package and leave on better terms so that we can do something better with our lives, instead of waiting for an uncertain future”, another source who claimed to have accepted the offer stated.
According to insiders, the retirement window has continued to witness overwhelming interest from workers across different cadres eager to secure their benefits before any unfavorable future changes.
Over 4,500 workers are expected to be affected by the staff rationalisation exercise. The figure represents about 75% of the corporation’s current staff population of about 6,000.
BH reliably gathered that the corporation’s major target are old and senior workers currently drawing huge monthly salaries and allowances.
Most of these workers, who have reached the peak of their careers, our correspondent gathered, have been in the employment of the corporation for close to three decades.
A top source in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, who did not want his identity in print, disclosed that the nation could no longer afford the corporation’s huge wage bill, which he described as outrageous.
“Majority of the workers at the NNPCL are very old staff, who have risen to senior managerial positions and presently drawing hefty salaries. Apart from that, as senior manages, they are entitled to domestic aides like cooks, drivers, personal assistants, gardeners, and gatemen. In most cases, the salaries of these aides are monetized.
Change in Policy
“With many subsidiaries of the firm currently moribund and not earning revenue, the government no longer see the need for the retention of idle workers who have continued to draw monthly wages despite contributing relatively nothing in return. For instance, government spent N120 billion on the staff salaries of the four unproductive refineries in 2025. Again, while the corporation could sustain their payments before when it could decict expenses or operating cost before remittance to the Federation Account, the new Executive Order makes impossibly now as everything go to the account first.
“I am of the opinion that the knowledge they possess are obsolete and that the nation will not lose much from their exits”, the ministry source stated.
BH gathered that in preparing for the mass sack, the corporation’s leadership have been quietly recruiting young and more energetic engineering graduates from universities across the country.
For instance, the corporation employed over 1,000 new workers into the system in 2025. These young recruits, sources say, collect a small fraction of what the old workers collect as salaries and allowances.
“The monthly take home packages of some of the outgoing senior managers are so huge that one of them can conveniently pay the salaries of ten new graduates from his or her renumeration”, a source in the corporation’s accounts department confided in our correspondent.
The retirement exercise, sources in the petroleum industry informed our correspondent, is the first phase of a broader restructuring strategy.
The development, meanwhile, has sparked concerns over a possible brain drain and the implications for the company’s operations as it pushes ahead with far-reaching restructuring.
According to Engr. Tunde Balogun, NNPC will lose the last of its old and experienced hands, who won’t be easy to replace.
Replacement Cost
“While the NNPC management is expected to replace critical skills where necessary, the mass departure of experienced personnel will surely create operational gaps and deepen concerns about morale among employees, who remain”, Balogun warned.
In its reaction to the development, the NNPCL maintained that no worker is being forced to leave.
“There are staff of the NNPC who are due to retire in three or five years. There are also people retiring by the end of this year. The company opened a scheme for them to take early retirement, and this happens everywhere.
“It is voluntary. If a worker decides to leave early, there is a package he or she gets. If the person decides to leave now, there is a package for it. Nobody is being forced to leave” the corporation said in a statement.
It would be recalled that the Group Chief Executive Officer of the corporation, Bashir Ojulari, had in an internal communication to staff late last year sighted by our correspondent, advised them to prepare for a major shake-up
According to Ojulari, the restructuring is part of a broader organisational recalibration currently underway at the national oil company.
He clarified that the AES targets employees due for retirement by 2026, while the VES covers staff scheduled for statutory retirement in 2027, as well as employees on grade level SS1 expected to retire between 2028 and 2030.
“Over the past year, we began an important recalibration of our organisation as part of our broader transformation.
“As we build momentum on this journey, it is essential that our workforce continues to evolve in line with the future we are building”, the NNPCL boss told the staff.