•Kachikwu
Until last month, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who also doubles as Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), was thought to have the magic wand to tackle the ills of the corporation and the petroleum resources ministry.
On assumption of office, he hit the ground running with far-reaching reforms and transformation of the national oil company primarily to cut cost, reduce corruption, plug wastage, increase transparency and accountability, and put the firm on a profitable pedestal.
Kachikwu is, without doubt, a brilliant and personable individual. A first class law graduate who emerged the best of his set from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he bagged a master and doctorate degrees with specialisation on Energy and Petroleum Law and Investment, and Petroleum and Investment Law Strategies from Harvard University.
He is a Fellow, Society for Corporate Governance, Chartered Institute of Arbitration, Chartered Institute for Petroleum Policy and visiting professor for various universities, including Harvard Law.
He is a thoroughbred professional with over 30 years experience in policy making positions in the petroleum industry. He was the General Counsel/Legal Adviser, Texaco Nigeria and Texaco Overseas Petroleum. He was also General Counsel/Secretary to the Board, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited; Executive Director ExxonMobil Group of Companies; and Executive Vice Chairman/General Counsel ExxonMobil Companies in Nigeria as well as Oversight Counsel ExxonMobil Companies in Africa.
At ExxonMobil, he influenced over $10billion in investment from ExxonMobil Group into Africa including Nigeria as Lead Negotiator on diverse issues for ExxonMobil in Africa including conclusion of Lease Renewal Negotiations for Mobil Producing.
Attracted by the credentials, President Muhammadu Buhari fished Kachikwu out from ExxonMobil and made him the Group Managing Director of NNPC on August 4, 2015. His task: to clean the rot and unbridled corruption in the corporation and Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Last November, the president added another feather to Kachikwu’s cap as he made him Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
Recent developments suggest that Kachikwu has, however, struggled with the transition from a technocrat revered in ExxonMobil and the Nigerian oil industry to a political office holder as both helmsman of NNPC and minister of one of Nigeria’s most valuable ministries. He seemed to issue directives without considering their impact on the economy and the people whose interest and welfare he should protect.
The trouble
Kachikwu’s first major litmus test came last December when the country encountered one of its worst fuel scarcity periods. Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol, the country’s most consumed fuel, became scarce to the point of a litre selling for as much as N300 – clearly above the government’s approved retail rate of N87. In reaction, many families shelved holiday plans or postponed trips for the Yuletide celebration.
The minister had to embark on inspection of retail outlets and monitoring supplies and sales to ensure marketers did not hoard the product. The situation was eventually brought under control in January this year, but adequate fuel supply has not been achieved since.
This, according to the National Operations Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), Mr. Mike Osatuyi, led to rationing of supply to marketers. Making NNPC the sole importer of fuel was a policy somersault by the minister, Osatuyi said, adding that it caused serious operational disorder because the corporation lacks the logistics, storage and distribution facilities to assume such position.
The decision caused all manner of sharp practices at the depots and retail outlets as marketers strove to get allocations and sell at a profit. It also created the current unmanageable nationwide scarcity that drew the ire of Nigerians who expend man-hours in queues and are subjected to untold suffering at retail outlets. People often resorted to leaving vehicles at filling stations in expectation of supply.
The minister however, stirred the hornets’ nest when he recently said that fuel scarcity would last till May and that he was not a ‘magician’ to cause fuel queues to disappear overnight. Nigerians, he added, should be glad to have the volume of fuel available. The statement induced fresh panic-buying and hoarding of fuel by consumers and marketers, causing the price to soar.
The scarcity bit harder and the queues lengthened. Amidst soaring inflation, public outrage ensued. Many condemned the minister for the careless utterance. Such statement should not come from a public officer of Kachikwu’s standing, they reasoned.
National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also cautioned the petroleum minister on the reckless statement. He said the minister strayed from the progressives path of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Kachikwu could have been more creative about the issue, he argued.
Tinubu said: “The art of governance is difficult and complex, especially during trying times. The steep reduction in global oil prices from over 100 dollars per barrel to roughly 40 presents a hard challenge. We can no longer afford past practices. Nigeria now requires creative reform, materially changing the substance of national economic policy as well as the objectives of that policy and how the policy is presented to the people. Therein lies the essence of progressive democratic governance.
“The Buhari administration represents the last best hope we have to install such governance in Nigeria and avert the catastrophe that would have befallen us had the prior government remained in place. Had the nation continued with the spendthrift corruption and vagabond economic policies of that administration, we would have soon experienced such a collision with the harsh consequences of that government’s malign ways that our very institutions of government may have been distorted beyond fixture and repair.”
The apology
Obviously realising his mistake, Kachikwu apologised to Nigerians on the lingering fuel scarcity and his unguarded statements when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) on Tuesday, thus vindicating the position of Asiwaju Tinubu. He said his comment that he was not a magician to cause fuel queues to disappear overnight was not intended to insult Nigerians. “’I’m not a magician’ comment was made jocularly and was never intended to slight Nigerians,” he said. “I share the pains of Nigerians. I feel that pain everyday when I walk the streets. On Easter day I was in Lagos monitoring fuel distribution and the depots, I have given 24 hours attention to the problems.
“I have continued to work with one sole purpose, which is that every problem must have a solution and I think that is the reason I was picked. I do apologise for the comment that I made jocularly with my friends in the press about being a magician and it offended Nigerians. It was not meant to be, it was a side jocular issue.”
Lagos Zonal Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, while speaking to a TV station, said Kachikwu was using Nigerians as an experiment. “The minister is just using Nigerians as an experiment and we don’t need that. The way I’m looking at it, the NNPC is the main cause of the fuel scarcity; other stakeholders are not complementing the efforts of the Federal Government because they claim they don’t have access to fuel. The government promised to make fuel available to them, why are they not giving it to them and make the fuel available and accessible to Nigerians?”
The minister promised to end the scarcity on April 7.
About The Nigerian Blogger
0 comments :
Post a Comment