President Muhammdu Buhari\u2019s appointment of Maikanti Kacalla Baru as the<\/p>\n
Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum
\nCorporation (NNPC) will have three implications- economic, political and
\nstaff\u2019s mode in the NNPC.<\/p>\n
The most important economic implication of Baru\u2019s appointment is that\u00a0\u00a0the
\nNNPC will continue to work without feeling a major shake in the change of
\nbaton in the corporation;\u00a0\u00a0because Baru has worked closely with Kachikwu
\nand has contributed to the already setup\u00a0\u00a0machineries and reforms\u2013 the
\nsystem will not witness any disruption in terms of new management.
\nFurthermore, Baru\u2019s appointment will definitely impact the orientation
\nwithin the NNPC staff. Those who are advocates of having a GMD from within
\nthe NNPC will be relieved; those who share the passion for more
\nprivate-sector-like-reforms will be at home with Baru. Furthermore, Baru\u2019s
\nappointment will boost staff morale and reassure them of career growth
\nwithin the corporation.
\nNo national assignment or appointment in Nigeria is free from political
\nequations and analysis- notably the everyday discussions on
\nmarginalization or favouritism of the north or the south. Some observers
\nhave expressed the fear that Baru\u2019s appointment may alter the gains made
\nby Kachikwu in the engagement with dissidents from the Niger Delta region
\nand the excellent moves in engaging the leaders of the region in order to
\nhalter the rise\u00a0in attacks on vital oil and gas infrastructure.\u00a0Baru\u2019s
\nappointment could in fact boost Kachikwu\u2019s efforts; Baru\u2019s intimidating
\nexperiences will further solidify Kachikwu\u2019s achievements with the Niger
\nDelta.
\nBaru\u2019s appointment and that of the NNPC\u2019s Board is in fact a kind of
\napproval by President Buhari of Kachikwu\u2019s work so far, especially as GMD
\nof NNPC \u2013 Kachikwu a\u00a0\u00a0thoroughbred bureaucrat who found himself in the
\nnexus of complex politicking and policy, public extreme expectation and
\nperformance will now have ample time in \u2018Ministering\u2019 Nigeria\u2019s complex
\noil and gas industry; fully engage the Niger Delta and also see the
\nactivities of the NNPC from the angle of a Board Chairman- an angle that
\nwill give him an unbiased view and feedback of activities of the
\ncorporation.
\nWith the four autonomous business units and project management office,
\nBaru is lucky- he has his job description clearly cut for him: to work
\nwithin the tenets of President Buhari\u2019s anti-corruption war- cleanup the
\noil and gas; sustain the current level of transparency that Nigerians have
\nnever seen- e.g publishing of NNPC monthly account; keep up and bring-out
\nthe benefits of Kachikwu\u2019s painstaking reforms. Baru will also utilize his
\nin-house experiences to put the right people and policies in the right
\nposition and time.
\nNevertheless, Baru has some painstaking tasks ahead in the area of
\ntouching the life of every Nigerian \u2013 which is NNPC\u2019s Unique Selling Point
\n(USP).\u00a0\u00a0Notwithstanding if he achieves 100% success in other sectors of
\nthe NNPC business, if the sector that touches the lives of ordinary
\nNigerian is not impressing; the entire nation will be on him. So the New
\nGMD needs to pay special attention to sustaining the availability of
\npetroleum products; drive more improvement and introduce corrective
\nmeasures to some areas. Of recent, the PPMC under Ahmed Farouk has
\nwitnessed some heartwarming success- some depots which have not received
\nrefined products for many years have recently received and loaded
\nproducts, especially PMS.\u00a0\u00a0Kaduna depot is wonderfully wetting the north
\nwith PMS, AGO, DPK and some petro-chemicals.
\nThe trio of Buhari, Kachikwu and Baru being very passionate about
\nreforming the oil and gas sector, should tackle downstream major problems-
\nincessant illegal tapping of pipelines by oil thieves, sabotage,
\nright-of-way incursions, slow detection of leaks and in-line equipment
\nfailure due to inaccessible sites, including the old-fashioned method of
\nmanaging the pipelines and increase the capacity of our refinery, by going
\nfor modular, mini and mobile refineries: There are affordable 1,000 bpd \u2013
\n30,000 bpd Modular refineries whose equipment units are pre-fabricated on
\nskid-mounted structures prior to shipment to any location.
\nZayyad I. Muhammad, Jimeta, Adamawa State, He blogs at
\nwww.zayyaddp.blogspot.com, zaymohd@yahoo.com, 08036070980<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammdu Buhari\u2019s 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\u2019s mode…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n