Oil and Gas Jobs:
For a young graduate in Akwa Ibom, the debate over who gets jobs in the state’s oil and gas industry is not merely another political disagreement.
It can mean the difference between another year of sending applications from one office to another and finally receiving the call that could change a family’s fortunes.
For entrepreneurs, technicians and young people hoping to enter the state’s growing energy economy, the more important question is simple: Who is getting the opportunities created by Akwa Ibom’s oil and gas resources?
That question has now become the centre of a disagreement between Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio (MMI), a socio-cultural organisation, and the office of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Rt. Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo.
MMI recently condemned what it described as an alleged lopsided distribution of employment opportunities in the oil and gas sector in Akwa Ibom.
But the minister’s office has rejected the basis of the allegation, saying the document relied upon by MMI did not originate from the minister’s office and was neither issued nor authenticated by it.
In a statement signed by Louis Ibah, spokesman to the minister, the office said the document had neither the minister’s official letterhead nor seal.
The minister’s office consequently questioned why an organisation with a reputation for promoting the interests of the Ibibio people and Akwa Ibom State would base such a serious allegation on an unverified document.
But beyond the dispute over the document lies a bigger question that matters to thousands of residents: Are opportunities in Akwa Ibom’s oil and gas sector being distributed fairly, and can the process be independently verified?
Where the minister says his record stands
The minister’s office points to a long list of interventions as evidence that his activities have not been restricted to his senatorial district.
According to the statement, Ekpo recently facilitated a Federal Government grassroots LPG intervention that distributed 27,000 gas cylinders across the state’s 31 local government areas, alongside ₦100,000 grants to 3,000 beneficiaries.
The office also cited efforts to expand compressed natural gas infrastructure, including mother and daughter stations and conversion facilities.
Among the projects mentioned are a 10 MMSCF/D gas mother station being financed through the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund for Nsik Oil and Gas Ltd in Esit Eket Local Government Area, and a 3 MMSCF/D CNG mother station and two daughter stations being developed by Guelph Gas Limited in Ibesikpo Asutan.
The statement says the projects are expected to create jobs and contribute to the state’s industrial and energy development.
It also listed a 20,000-metric-tonne LPG depot being developed by Windek Energy Limited at Atabrikang-Aquaha in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area.
Another major initiative cited is a $3.5 billion gas infrastructure and industrialisation agreement involving the Akwa Ibom State Government, NNPC Limited and the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria.
For the minister’s office, these interventions are evidence that the minister’s interest is broader than any particular ethnic group or senatorial district.
But projects are not the same as jobs
This is where the controversy becomes more complicated.
A new gas station may create jobs. An LPG depot may create employment. A multimillion-dollar energy project may stimulate businesses and generate opportunities.
But for a job seeker, the existence of a project does not automatically answer the question of who was employed.
How many Akwa Ibom people have been employed through these projects?
How many are from each local government area?
How many are women?
How many are young people?
What positions were advertised?
How many applications were received?
What recruitment criteria were used?
Were vacancies publicly advertised?
And, most importantly, can the employment figures be independently verified?
These are the questions that could move the conversation beyond accusations and counter-accusations.
Appointments become part of the argument
The minister’s office also points to appointments involving people from different parts of the state.
It cited the appointment of Edet Ubong from Uyo Local Government Area to the Governing Council of the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund.
It also mentioned Kufre Sam of Eket as Special Adviser on Political Affairs; Odiong Ekanem of Itu as Technical Adviser on NNPC Ltd Relations; Dr Blessing Samuel of Uyo as Chief of Protocol; and Ubong Umana of Esit Eket as Protocol Officer.
The office says these appointments demonstrate that Ekpo has supported people outside his senatorial district.
That may provide evidence of geographical spread in appointments, but appointments to political or administrative positions are not necessarily equivalent to recruitment into technical and professional oil and gas jobs.
That distinction matters because the original controversy centres specifically on employment opportunities in the sector.
What does inclusion really look like?
For communities across Akwa Ibom, inclusion may mean more than seeing their sons and daughters appointed into government positions.
It may mean a young engineering graduate in Ikot Ekpene getting access to a job advertised by an energy company.
It may mean a technician in Oron being trained and employed in a gas facility.
It may mean a woman in a riverine community benefiting from an LPG initiative.
It may mean a young person in Eket, Uyo, Ikot Abasi, Itu or Eastern Obolo having the same opportunity to compete for a job as someone from elsewhere in the state.
That is why transparency in recruitment is important.
The document controversy
The minister’s office has raised a legitimate issue that should not be ignored: Who produced the document that triggered MMI’s allegation?
If the document is not authentic, its contents should not be treated as established evidence.
But establishing that a particular document is fake, unauthorised or unauthenticated would not automatically prove that there is no imbalance in employment opportunities.
Those are two separate questions.
The first is about the credibility of the evidence.
The second is about the underlying claim.
Both require verification.
MMI also has questions to answer
MMI, on its part, would strengthen its position by publicly identifying the source of the employment list it relied upon and explaining how the alleged lopsidedness was determined.
Was the list obtained from a government agency, an oil company, a recruitment portal or another source?
What period does it cover?
Does it represent all oil and gas employment in Akwa Ibom or only selected agencies or companies?
Were temporary, contract and permanent workers included?
Without answers to these questions, the public may struggle to determine whether the allegation represents a broad pattern or an incomplete snapshot.
Beyond the political argument
The danger is that the debate could become another argument between political actors and socio-cultural organisations while the people whose lives are directly affected remain spectators.
For the unemployed graduate, the issue is not whether one group has won an argument.
For the struggling entrepreneur, it is not about which statement sounds stronger.
For the family waiting for a son or daughter to secure a first job, what matters is whether opportunities are genuinely available and fairly accessible.
Akwa Ibom is one of Nigeria’s major oil and gas-producing states, and its expanding gas economy could create significant opportunities.
But development is most meaningful when people can see its benefits in their homes, businesses and communities.
That is why the current controversy deserves something more than competing press statements.
It deserves data.
It deserves transparent recruitment records.
It deserves verifiable project and employment figures.
And it deserves answers from the relevant government agencies, companies and institutions responsible for recruitment.
Until those figures are made available, the public is left with two competing narratives: MMI’s allegation of lopsidedness and the minister’s rejection of the allegation as being based on an unauthenticated document.
Between those positions are thousands of Akwa Ibom residents waiting to know whether the state’s oil and gas wealth will translate into opportunities they can actually access.
For them, the real question is not simply who is right?
It is: Who gets the job?
