On Saturday, a social media user claimed that the ongoing recruitment exercise of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is the company’s first open recruitment in a decade.
Responding to an X post, the user, @Azteccc, falsely attributed the NNPC’s ongoing recruitment exercise as an achievement of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
“For the first time in maybe a decade, NNPCL is actually doing an open recruitment. That’s to tell you the rot that had existed in the system prior to this admin coming in,” the X user claimed.
“The average Nigerian now has a shot at a very good job in this once cornered government agency. Kudos to PBAT!”
The X user was responding to the comment published by another user with the handle @MS Ingawa, who shared pictures of NNPC graduate trainee applicants having their computer-based test (CBT) across the country.
“45,689 Applicants qualified to sit for the aptitude test at different CBT Centers across the country starting from today. The company provided arrangements for persons with disabilities at every center. The GCEO, Mele Kyari, went round to oversee the exercise,” Ingawa captioned the pictures.
BACKGROUND
In July, the NNPC announced a recruitment exercise for qualified applicants, expected to close on August 20.
The national oil firm said individuals passionate about building a career in the company can visit its website to apply.
The firm requires disciplines such as geosciences, petroleum engineering, well engineering, general engineering, operations engineering, commercial, finance, accounts, audit, taxation and insurance, information technology, legal, and security.
Although the NNPC job application portal experienced downtime due to “unprecedented traffic”, about 45,689 applicants were recorded to have written the aptitude test on December 7.
IS THIS THE FIRST OPEN RECRUITMENT IN A DECADE AS CLAIMED?
Checks by CableCheck showed that the NNPC had operated an open recruitment five years ago –less than a decade.
In March 2019, the national oil firm announced the commencement of a recruitment exercise for fresh graduates and experienced professionals.
The categories available for recruitment were graduate trainee, senior officer and supervisory cadre, and managerial cadre.
On June 1, 2019, all shortlisted candidates for its recruitment, over 60,000, sat for the CBT across the country.
While over 94 centres in 22 states were provided for the test, only successful candidates were called for the next phase – the oral test- eventually candidates were recruited or selected after passing all tests.
At the end of the test, the NNPC said 1,050 candidates were employed as graduate trainees.
However, between 2021 and 2023, the NNPC issued public statements urging the public to disregard false reports claiming it was conducting recruitment.
VERDICT
The claim that the NNPC has not had an open recruitment in the past decade is false.
