The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has adopted a new leadership succession model modelled after the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), in a move aimed at eliminating leadership tussles, ensuring continuity, and strengthening institutional stability.
Festus Osifo, PENGASSAN president, announced the constitutional reform on Saturday in Abuja during a tribute ceremony held in honour of the union’s late former President, Francis Johnson, whose death in office on May 31, 2019, exposed the challenges associated with sudden leadership transitions.
Osifo said the union amended its constitution in August 2025 to provide that an elected Deputy President would automatically succeed the President at the end of the incumbent’s tenure, thereby removing the need for a separate contest for the office of president.
According to him, the reform followed a comprehensive review of succession practices across major professional and membership organisations in Nigeria, with PENGASSAN concluding that the ICAN model offered the most effective framework for ensuring orderly leadership transition.
“We examined different succession models, including that of the Nigerian Bar Association, but found the ICAN model more suitable. Under ICAN’s arrangement, members contest for the office of the vice president, while the President emerges through succession. We have now adopted the same principle in PENGASSAN,” Osifo said.
He explained that by making the office of the next President known in advance, the union had significantly reduced internal rivalry, political tension, and factional interests that traditionally characterised leadership transitions.
“In PENGASSAN, whoever is elected deputy president will automatically become the president. There is no contest for the presidency again. That certainty has brought remarkable stability to the union,” he said.
Osifo noted that previous transition periods were often marked by intense political manoeuvring and internal divisions as early as two years before leadership handovers.
“Our delegates’ conference and transition will take place on August 22, 2026. In the past, two years before a transition, the union would already be engulfed in disputes. Today, the National Executive Council and the Central Working Committee remain united. The transition is progressing smoothly without any rancour,” he added.
He described the constitutional amendment as one of the enduring legacies of the current leadership, saying it would allow the union to focus more on protecting workers’ interests and advancing reforms in Nigeria’s petroleum industry rather than being distracted by internal succession battles.
Founded in 1978, PENGASSAN is one of Nigeria’s most influential trade unions, representing senior staff in the oil and gas industry. The association is expected to formally usher in its next leadership at its Delegates Conference scheduled for August 22, 2026.
