The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers have been blamed for the crisis rocking the oil sector.

A former National Public Relations Officer of PENGASSAN, Mr Oluwaseyi Gambo, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said that leaders of the unions were victims of their weak and reactionary leadership styles.

Gambo said that like vultures, the union leaders ate the future of their hard working members.

He said that if past leadership had lived up to the billing, things would not have been this bad in the oil industry.

“The unions failed as gate keepers on all fronts. They failed to checkmate irresponsible spending by people in authority and fraudulent indigenenatisation of the sector.

“They also failed to bring the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to account for how much they were really lifting, just as they failed to force government to secure the industry.

“Billions of dollars if not trillions were made from this sector with nothing to show for it.

“It was under their watch that oil thieves became national menace affecting the bottom line.”

The former spokesman said it would be hard for oil and gas companies to obey the no sack order by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Sen. Chris Ngige, considering the fall in world price of crude oil.

“The minister for one should know that he can force a horse to the river but he cannot force it to drink.

“Are all the firms in the oil and gas industry government owned, how many of the producing firms or service firms are government-owned?”

Gambo said that with the current economic crunch, if the weights of staff would kill the companies, then there won’t be any option than to sack.

He said that the economic crunch could also force the companies to fold up and leave Nigeria. (NAN)