- As Akeredolu seeks deep Seaport in Ondo
A crisis of confidence has broken out between Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr. Maikanti Baru.
The minister has accused the GMD of awarding $25billion contracts without consulting either his office or the corporation’s board.
He blamed the GMD for alleged insubordination, lack of adherence to due process and running a “bravado management style”.
Kachikwu said he was being sidelined by the GMD and other heads of parastatals in major decisions and appointments.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the GMD to order to ensure due process and transparency in the oil sector.
Kachikwu also presented five prayers to the President to save the oil sector from collapse.
He said he was always being blocked from seeing the President.
Kachikwu, in an August 30 memo to Buhari, said he was neither anti-North nor corrupt as being alleged.
He said he was disturbed that $25billion contracts were awarded by Baru without his input and that of the Board.
The memo said: “The legal and procedural requirement is that all contracts above $20million would need to be reviewed and approved by the Board of the NNPC. Mr. President, in over one year of Dr. Baru’s tenure, no contract has been run through the Board. This is despite my diplomatic encouragement to Dr. Baru to do so to avoid wrongfully painting you as a President who does not allow due process to thrive in the NNPC.
“Given the history of malpractices and the public perception of the NNPC as having a history of non-transparency, the NNPC Tenders Board (NTB) cannot be the final clearance authority for contracts it enters into.
“The NTB, which is a collection of level NNPC executives and COOs, with the GMD as chairman cannot continue to be the final approval authority for multimillion dollar contracts and transactions involving NNPC to the exclusion of the Board.
Board members have singularly and collectively raised these issues to no avail. “The following major contracts were never reviewed by or discussed with me or the Board of NNPC:
The Crude Term Contracts – value at over $10b
The DSDP contracts – value over $5b
The AKK pipeline contract – value approximately $3b
Various financing allocation funding contracts with the NOCs – value over $3bn
Various NPDC production service contracts – value at over $3bn – $4bn
”There are many more Your Excellency. In most of these activities, the explanation of the GMD is that you are the minister of petroleum and your approvals were obtained. However, the correct governance should be that the Minister of State and the Board review the transaction and give their concurrence prior to presentation to you.
“As in many cases of things that happen in NNPC these days, I learn of transactions only through publications in the media. The question is why is it that other parastatals which I supervise as Minister of State or Chair of their Boards are able to go through these contractual and mandatory governance processes and yet NNPC is exempt from these?
“I know that this bravado management style runs contrary to the cleansing operations you engaged me to carry out at the inception of your administration. This is also not in consonance with your own renowned standards of integrity.”
Kachikwu also said he was being disrespected by the GMD
He added: I would have wanted to come personally after receiving you at the airport to felicitate with you and discuss matters herein contained, however, I have been unable to secure on appointment to see you despite very many attempts.
“Mr. President, yesterday like many other Nigerians, I resumed work confronted by many publications of massive changes within the NNPC. Like the previous reorganisations and reposting done since Dr. Baru resumed as GMD. I was never given the opportunity before the announcements to discuss these appointments. This is so despite being minister of State Petroleum and Chairman NNPC Board.
”The Board of NNPC which you appointed and, which has met every month since its inauguration and, which by the statutes of NNPC is meant to review these planned appointments and postings, was never briefed. Members of the Board learnt of these appointments from the pages of social media and the press release of NNPC.
”I only need to add that previous attempts to rush through these appointments through non-governance backdoor and present same to the Acting President were met with a request that this be discussed with me. This was never done.
“Indeed in anticipation of vacancies that would arise from retiring senior executives of NNPC, I wrote the GMD a letter requesting that we both have prior review of the proposed appointments. This was to enable me present same to the Board
In the meantime, after another closed-door meeting with the President, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) told State House correspondents that the state needed the Federal Government to take advantage of the natural resources in the state.
He said: “We are asking that the country takes advantage of the natural resources in Ondo State. We have a seaport, which is very germane to our export activities, in particular, and our mineral deposits, which we have in large number. We need to have a deep sea-manning port. Ondo State is well suited for it.
“So, we impressed this on Mr. President on what we believe will be a lasting legacy, if we are able to accomplish it in his own time.”
On the volume of mineral resources for export warranting a deep seaport, Akeredolu said: “No. You just look at the volume of natural resources we are exporting through any port in Nigeria.
“The total volume, which is still not so high; the moment it gets high, we will need a deep seaport where we will even have a modern ship berth. We do not have anywhere in this country today where big ships can berth, not in Lagos or Calabar.
“That is why what you see is that so many of the ships will berth in the high sea while the smaller ones will be used to take the goods there or bring the goods from the ship. That is why we need a deep seaport where the biggest ships in the world can berth, and that is in Ondo State.”
The Minister of Mines and Steel Dr Kayode Fayemi said the deep seaport was about the future.
On non-oil revenue, he said: “We are emphasising solid minerals development as a vehicle for diversification, an agenda of Mr. President. So, we look at what role that will play in the future and the non-oil sector.
“Now, our oil wealth is going down; at the same time, we are talking that other countries are talking about manufacturing cars that will not use fuel in the next two decades. What will these cars be using? If you look at the Tata vehicles out there (in India), there are all battery-powered. Where will the battery power come from? It will come from lead, lithium, cobalt. These are things we have in abundance in Nigeria.
“So, although we may lose out on oil, it doesn’t mean it is a zero sum gain. We may be gaining other things which Mr. President is keen about.
“The President asked for an update on Ajaokuta and the Aluminium Smelting Company at Ikot Abasi. I came to brief Mr. President on the development to ensure these companies are back to life.
“I told him about the efforts the Vice President has been making at ensuring that we have a definitive solution to the sale of Aluminium Smelting Company at Ikot Abasi and that we also move forward in the resolution and agreement reached on Ajaokuta Steel so that we get ready for the second concessioning.
“We have appointed an adviser; we have appointed a new leadership there, because the term of the last leadership has expired. Those were the things we updated Mr. President on.
“Mineral resources have contributed significantly to the gross domestic product (GDP) and revenue. This year alone, we have exceeded the target given to us. If you look at the Bureau of Statistics’ report, you will see that the two sectors that have contributed immensely to the GDP are agriculture and solid minerals.”
Nation