The expected reorganisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) began in earnest this week with President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as Group Managing Director (GMD) of the oil agency. He replaced the erstwhile boss of the agency, Dr. Joseph Dawha.
The appointment of Kachikwu, a former Executive Vice-Chairman/General Counsel of ExxonMobil (Africa), was followed with the sacking of all Group Executive Directors (GEDs) in the NNPC, and the reduction of its erstwhile eight Directorates to four.
The new GEDs appointed from within the corporation are Dr. M.K. Baru for the Directorate of Refining and Engineering; Dennis Nnamdi; (Exploration and Production); Bankole Komolafe; (Commercial Investment); and Abdulrazak Isiaka (Finance).
The new NNPC helmsman has, among others, been tasked to reposition the oil behemoth and make it a profitable venture. He has also been directed to initiate measures to rid the NNPC system of corrupt elements, and work with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS) to trace and recover all stolen oil funds.
He is expected to review the structure of the NNPC to make it competitive, globally; give targets to all subsidiaries; put in place performance benchmarks, and fix all refineries to ensure that they work at optimal level, “even if it means using expatriates in the interim.”
Stakeholders in the nation’s oil and gas sector have hailed the appointment of this highly respected professional in the private sector to drive NNPC operations. He is widely seen as the right person for the reform job.
It is commendable that President Buhari went outside the corporation to bring an experienced and highly rated industry player to drive the expected reforms in the organisation.
We congratulate Kachikwu on his new appointment and urge him to hit the ground running in the huge task of repositioning the NNPC. He should bring his vast experience in the oil industry to bear on this new assignment. His selection for this job followed a credible and highly competitive process, so he must justify the confidence reposed in him by the Federal Government.
Coming to the new job as the highest ranked African in ExxonMobil means that he knows his onions. He should, therefore, confidently go ahead with the task of cleansing the NNPC and making it a viable and profitable venture.
For many years, the NNPC has been regarded as the sick baby of the nation’s oil industry and all efforts to reform it have so far proved abortive. Therefore, ridding the organisation of its deep-rooted rot ought to be of paramount importance to the new helmsman. We say this because without killing the corruption in this oil agency, there is little anyone can achieve in its reorganisation.
Kachikwu should see the new assignment as a great challenge and strictly adhere to the six-point agenda given to him by the president.
A First Class graduate of Law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the Nigerian Law School, where he was also the best graduating student and a multiple-award-winner, Kachikwu also obtained Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Law from the Harvard Law School, USA, with distinctions.
He commenced his working career at the defunct Nigerian-American Merchant Bank before moving over to Texaco Nigeria Limited where he worked for about eight years before joining ExxonMobil.
These antecedents indicate that he has what it takes to make a success of this assignment. He should, therefore, be thorough and painstaking in his efforts to rid the NNPC of its debilitating systemic corruption.
If his pedigree is anything to go by, there is no doubt that he will succeed in this job. We wish him well in this job and urge him to remember at all times that Nigeria’s hope for a transparent and truly functional oil agency now rests on his shoulders.