President Muhammdu Buhari’s appointment of Maikanti Kacalla Baru as the
Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) will have three implications- economic, political and
staff’s mode in the NNPC.
The most important economic implication of Baru’s appointment is that the
NNPC will continue to work without feeling a major shake in the change of
baton in the corporation; because Baru has worked closely with Kachikwu
and has contributed to the already setup machineries and reforms– the
system will not witness any disruption in terms of new management.
Furthermore, Baru’s appointment will definitely impact the orientation
within the NNPC staff. Those who are advocates of having a GMD from within
the NNPC will be relieved; those who share the passion for more
private-sector-like-reforms will be at home with Baru. Furthermore, Baru’s
appointment will boost staff morale and reassure them of career growth
within the corporation.
No national assignment or appointment in Nigeria is free from political
equations and analysis- notably the everyday discussions on
marginalization or favouritism of the north or the south. Some observers
have expressed the fear that Baru’s appointment may alter the gains made
by Kachikwu in the engagement with dissidents from the Niger Delta region
and the excellent moves in engaging the leaders of the region in order to
halter the rise in attacks on vital oil and gas infrastructure. Baru’s
appointment could in fact boost Kachikwu’s efforts; Baru’s intimidating
experiences will further solidify Kachikwu’s achievements with the Niger
Delta.
Baru’s appointment and that of the NNPC’s Board is in fact a kind of
approval by President Buhari of Kachikwu’s work so far, especially as GMD
of NNPC – Kachikwu a thoroughbred bureaucrat who found himself in the
nexus of complex politicking and policy, public extreme expectation and
performance will now have ample time in ‘Ministering’ Nigeria’s complex
oil and gas industry; fully engage the Niger Delta and also see the
activities of the NNPC from the angle of a Board Chairman- an angle that
will give him an unbiased view and feedback of activities of the
corporation.
With the four autonomous business units and project management office,
Baru is lucky- he has his job description clearly cut for him: to work
within the tenets of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war- cleanup the
oil and gas; sustain the current level of transparency that Nigerians have
never seen- e.g publishing of NNPC monthly account; keep up and bring-out
the benefits of Kachikwu’s painstaking reforms. Baru will also utilize his
in-house experiences to put the right people and policies in the right
position and time.
Nevertheless, Baru has some painstaking tasks ahead in the area of
touching the life of every Nigerian – which is NNPC’s Unique Selling Point
(USP). Notwithstanding if he achieves 100% success in other sectors of
the NNPC business, if the sector that touches the lives of ordinary
Nigerian is not impressing; the entire nation will be on him. So the New
GMD needs to pay special attention to sustaining the availability of
petroleum products; drive more improvement and introduce corrective
measures to some areas. Of recent, the PPMC under Ahmed Farouk has
witnessed some heartwarming success- some depots which have not received
refined products for many years have recently received and loaded
products, especially PMS. Kaduna depot is wonderfully wetting the north
with PMS, AGO, DPK and some petro-chemicals.
The trio of Buhari, Kachikwu and Baru being very passionate about
reforming the oil and gas sector, should tackle downstream major problems-
incessant illegal tapping of pipelines by oil thieves, sabotage,
right-of-way incursions, slow detection of leaks and in-line equipment
failure due to inaccessible sites, including the old-fashioned method of
managing the pipelines and increase the capacity of our refinery, by going
for modular, mini and mobile refineries: There are affordable 1,000 bpd –
30,000 bpd Modular refineries whose equipment units are pre-fabricated on
skid-mounted structures prior to shipment to any location.
Zayyad I. Muhammad, Jimeta, Adamawa State, He blogs at
www.zayyaddp.blogspot.com, zaymohd@yahoo.com, 08036070980