Recent policy measures taken so far by NNPC’s GMD proves he is capable of turning things around for Nigeria’s goose that lays the golden egg, writes Correspondent, SAM NWOKORO.
There is always light at the end of the tunnel, goes the old saying. This applies to institutions as much as to human affairs. In the life of any entity comes a time of crawling, time of trudging, time of running and time of slowing down. In the life of an organisation, such as octopus Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerians have been regaled with a medley of abracadabra on how to run efficiently and profitably an institution whose success story depends on variables that swing as often as the country’s socio-political temperature.
Because of the position and strategic status of the organisation in the country’s economic growth calculus and socio-political permutations, getting someone to run the place with the level of dedication and patriotism it deserves for it to drive Nigeria’s growth efforts has always been problematic. Not that the right calibre of human resource are not in its rank and file, but because of some avuncular political scheming and schism that often attend appointments to the position of Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC.
Thus, factors such as ethnic balancing, bureaucratic cultures, variegated interests of stakeholders in Nigeria’s ever expanding oil and gas sector and even the preferences of foreign diplomatic power brokers whose nationals are so deep in Nigeria’s energy matrix always come into play either openly or discreetly. Also for an organisation like NNPC to stream into trending management systems in today’s oil and gas business, both at national, regional and global field, there is need for someone who would not be encumbered by the aforementioned vestiges. For a long time, Nigeria has not had such until the recent appointment of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu in April this year.
Hope for NNPC
Thus NNPC may have found in Kachikwu such global leadership qualities that gave a principled man like President Muhammadu Buhari (PMD) the confidence that he would not be handing Nigeria’s energy institution to an incompetent manager. The president needed someone to manage the NNPC prudently, to ensure that the sharp practices in the importation of refined petroleum products and crude oil lifting is contained – an area past managers of the NNPC has serially failed in the estimation of Nigerians.
However, among stakeholders, Kachikwu is seen more as the backroom policy engineer and perfectionist whose ideas on how to maximise opportunities in the operations of the entity had in the past few years improved the public image of the entity, especially right from late 2013.
Little wonder, a citizen, Theodore Ugolor, said thus about his appointment: “Ibe Kachikwu has been a silent mover of things in the NNPC. I knew him when I worked with the NNPC. He has eyes for detail and this uncanny ability to periscope things, and it matches his projections. He reads international market situations very well and is knowledgeable. NNPC, because of the politics of the appointment of its GMDs, had in the past paraded people with no requisite knowledge to manage the gamut of issues in the entity. This adversely affected the operational value deliverables of the NNPC for a long time.
“And the kind of political leadership we have had did not encourage forward approach, proactive policy designs for the entire divisions within the NNPC. So the independent units were not contributing much because oil-lifting accounts were the main focus of every one. I have no doubt that Kachikwu would maximise potentials of all the divisions of NNPC, especially the NLNG sector.”
Good starts
As someone who understands the call to duty, Dr. Kachikwu registered immediate impression as someone who has a mission in mind and burst the ring of twerky bureaucrats who usually cause policy somersaults in the agency. He relieved about 38 senior managers of their post: those who cause ‘go slow’ and put spanner in the works of reform measures by their ubiquitous acts. He also promised another round of forensic audit that will be carried out to cover 2014-2015 to ascertain the corporation’s true financial position.
The GMD showed promise of a compassionate responsive leader who believes Nigerians expect the utmost from key drivers of the economy when he acknowledged that: “Things have been done wrongly and things need to be done differently. We are doing a lot of work in terms of repositioning, getting the right personnel in key places and setting a culture of accountability and service delivery, so that the new NNPC that you are going to see will be a new institution altogether.
“The restructuring will be a complete A-Z. I have done the first three layers which is going to the GEDs, to GGMs and GMs. You are going to have a lot more. The GEDs and GGMs will take it to the next layer.”
His human resource management philosophy reads unflinching commitment. Public interest obviously is his driving motto. “The whole idea behind the overhaul and restructuring is for us to be able to look at appraisals, how well done the job has been, what we have to do to elevate you to a position where you can offer service.”
Modest strides so far
Since Kachikwu’s coming on board, Nigerians have observed some changes that are fundamental in the growth strategy of the organisation. At least, the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has been unbundled and more vigilance infrastructure is gradually returning to the country’s oil and gas pipeline network. This in turn rekindled interest of local infrastructure maintainers and security operatives in the PPMC development template.
Certainly, this will have a spill-over effect in a positive way. Oil theft, which the present Buhari administration has vowed to end, if not totally stopped, will at least be noticeably mitigated. This would be a positive departure from the ugly past when oil theft and pipeline vandalism was almost an everyday occurrence. Though it cannot be said that the plague has stopped, certainly those crude looters are shivering under due to Kachikwu’s renewed verve in doing things thoroughly.
Said Ugolo: “Buhari could not have chosen any cranky person for that, if not for the fact that he has found Ibe Kachikwu reliable.”
Within the new GMD’s “first 100 days so to speak, the organisation has been able to secure some $1.2 billion Alternative Funding Arrangement for some 36 strategic oil wells. This appears to be the first major breakthrough of the organisation in more 10 years to deepen exploration and production in order to shore up reserves which had since been under the threat of avaricious theft and capricious crude for swap.”
The sanitisation of the process of crude delivery to refineries has helped in saving Nigeria huge loss of diversion. The same applies to the pruning down of the number of refined petroleum importers.
There is no doubt that Kachikwu has the feel of the public and understands their anxieties. His promise to fine-tune the Petroleum industry Bill (PIB) appears to have rekindled, to some extent, the interest of some oil companies who had been complaining. His template of community-based pipeline protection model seems suitable.
His reduction of management staff from 122 to 83 is part of the effort to cut as much as possible the route of scams and mafiadom that rule the oil and gas industry.
The oil technocrat’s knowhow is evident in his recommendation of erecting lower capacity modular refineries in place of waiting for the completion of gargantuan mega refineries likely to take longer time to accomplish.
Other reform measures Kachikwu has commenced within his short period of his being in the saddle include rejigging the subsidiaries and appointing new heads, lifting embargo placed on 133 crude oil vessels by the Buhari government. Obviously, he has cleared all the puzzles about those vessels before the president who is keen in curbing the alleged “recklessness” in the oil sector before such clearance.
His renewed attention on local refineries with a view to getting them back on stream has stabilised the availability of petroleum products in the past few months since the new regime came on board.
The NNPC has promised that all the nation’s existing four refineries will very likely be working to full capacity before the end of next year, with the Kaduna refinery attaining such by the first quarter of next year. Already, it is refining at about 60 per cent.
Credible endorsement
There are some institutions or entities or even governments that have garnered reputation in nation-building and human affairs management whose endorsements of an appointee lends credibility that an institution is serious in its policy works. For a country like United States that is committed to the country’s economic development, and with huge stakes in diverse sectors of Nigeria’s economy, has endorsed the appointment of Kachikwu. According to one diplomat: “Nigeria seems to be discovering where it missed its mark” soon after the appointment of Kachikwu as NNPC boss. By these endorsements, it was clear that Kachikwu was definitely a hope-raiser.
