Barely 24 hours after the Federal Government sacked the former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Joseph Dwaha, and appointed Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as the new Chief Executive of the corporation, a gale of sacks, yesterday, swept through the corporation and its subsidiaries.
The eight Group Executive Directors, GEDs, of the NNPC were, yesterday, relieved of their appointments with immediate effect.
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The GEDs who were relieved of their duties were:
Group Executive Director, Refining & Petrochemicals, Mr. Ian Udoh;
Group Executive Director, Engineering and Technical, Mr. Adebayo Ibirogba;
Group Executive Director, Gas & Power, Dr David Ige;
Group Executive Director, Business Development Dr. Attahir Yusuf;
Group Executive Director, Corporate Services, Dr.Dan Efebo;
Group Executive Director, Finance & Accounts, Mr. Bernard Otti;
Group Executive Director, Commerce & Investments, Ms. Aisha Abdurrahman.
The former Group Managing Director, Dr. Joseph Dwaha, had also acted as the GED, Exploration and Production, a position he held before being promoted group chief executive.
The NNPC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, said: “The new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who personally conveyed the Federal Government’s decision to the retiring Group Executive Directors expressed gratitude to them for their services to the Corporation and wished them success in their future endeavors.”
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President Jonathan appointed all these GEDs in March, 2014.
NNPC subsidiaries
The sledge hammer was also meant to hit all the subsidiary chief executives, but the decision was suspended following further instructions from the Presidency.
The NNPC Group comprises of the following subsidiaries:
Duke Oil Nigeria Limited
Hydrocarbon Services Nigeria Limited, Hyson
International Data Services Limited, IDSL
Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC
Nigerian Engineering Technical Company, NETCO
Nigerian Gas Company, NGC
National Petroleum Development Company, NPDC
National Petroleum Investment Marketing Services, NAPIMS
Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC
Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC
Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC
Mood within the NNPC Group
From Abuja to Lagos and all around the Group, is a feeling of apprehension on who will be next, as the attitude is now one of “wait and see”.
At the NNPC Headquarters in Abuja, those who spoke in confidence on the telephone said the changes were expected.
According to one of them, “we’re all just watching to see what happens next. These changes are beyond our control, and everywhere is quiet.”
Another noted that the real problem with the NNPC is not within, as “the NNPC is controlled by the political leaders, so if the changes must succeed, then the internal structure of the Corporation must be extricated from politics.”
The story is similar in Lagos, as a staff in one of the subsidiary companies revealed that “everybody is now sitting up,” while another added that “there will even be more changes.”
Another unit top management staff, who said the appointment of Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, as the new Group Managing Director is the best thing that could have happened to the Corporation, also said this is now the time to prune down cost of maintaining “a bloated and heavy management.”
According to him: “Instead of being a pyramid, the NNPC Group management is an inverted pyramid. This is because the GEDs were appointed based on political considerations like geographical spread, which makes it unreasonable.”
Furthermore, he said that many who had served their full terms of 35 years even had their tenures elongated, noting that “this was not fair to the junior workers, as there was no growth in the system. The Group wastes so much money on staff training but nobody can move up because those at the top were not leaving the system, which is a waste of resources.”
He said this was why the NNPC employees lobby to become managers because, “you won’t start enjoying NNPC until you become a manager, either at the corporate headquarters or in the refineries. Their salaries are so heavy and not in the general interest of the public.”
He added that since the All Progressive Congress, APC, won the Presidential elections; there has been this fear and trepidation among the staff.
“Everybody began to sit up right from when Buhari won the elections. The fear of Buhari was the beginning of wisdom because of his reputation as a no nonsense man,” he said.
Across the spectrum
The fear is not only limited to the NNPC Group as even the entire Ministry of Petroleum Resources had become apprehensive since Buhari came into power.
At the headquarters of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, a top management staff discussed on the telephone: “Everybody has been apprehensive since the Buhari Government came into power.
“You know the change started with DPR, and our acting director in his briefing to the staff told everybody to brace up, as the changes will trickle down. He said to us, ‘nobody knows who will be next; you can be summoned by the Presidency or the National Assembly, and if you are summoned you have to be prepared and give them all the answers to the questions. There can be no excuse.’
As a result, he said there has been a noticeable change in work attitude especially among the strategic divisions and operational departments.
Joint venture partners
The word is still mum among the Joint Venture partners, particularly the international oil companies, IOCs, where Kachikwu came from. Apart from Kachikwu’s former employers, none of the JV IOCs, Shell, Chevron, Total, Agip and a host of others have said anything about the changes.
However, a top manager in one of the JV companies said that this might not be unconnected with the fact that, Kachikwu’s appointment will also affect the way they do business in Nigeria.
He said: “His (Kachikwu’s) appointment is very good in terms of how the JV partners will be dealing with Nigeria, especially with regard to industry costs. So all the moves the IOCs make to pad projects costs will be checked.
“This was what happened with the appointment of Bernard Otti, the GED Finance and Accounts, who also came from ExxonMobil. Since he got to NNPC, no IOC budget can be approved without him, and the manner in which he slashes them shows he is blocking all the leakages especially with budget padding. As an engineer, he knows what every project involves and what possible costs it may involve. So this will happen even more now with the new man.”
NNPC website page not found
Possibly due to the ongoing sweeping changes, the official websites of the NNPC and its subsidiaries can no longer be accessed.
Meanwhile, the National Resource Governance Institute, NRGI, in its August Report, titled: Inside NNPC Oil Sales: A Case for Reform in Nigeria, made available to Vanguard identified ways to create more effective checks on NNPC’s decision-making under President Buhari.
According to the Report the new leadership should “Require NNPC to establish clear performance benchmarks, for the year and for the medium-term. These should include spending levels tied to the corporation’s actual budget proposals. NNPC should circulate these benchmarks to relevant government entities including the National Assembly (NASS), report against them on an annual basis, and use them as a basis against which performance can be concretely assessed. This approach affords NNPC some autonomy (the NASS should not, for instance, get involved in various business decisions), while injecting some accountability into a system where it is sorely lacking.”
Guard against known governance risks.
To further strengthen NNPC accountability and adopt a strong reform posture, the presidency should develop and oversee an agenda under which the relevant agencies:
Propose amendments to the 1977 NNPC Act to remove the petroleum minister as chair of the NNPC board, appoint a board constituted by a majority of independent professionals, and ensure that the board meets regularly.
Restore CBN’s full authority as joint signatory to the Crude Oil Naira and Dollar Accounts.
Sanction NNPC officials for refusing to cooperate with audits or parliamentary probes.
Publicly support and protect the tenures of officials in other agencies who justifiably question NNPC management decisions.
Require oil sector officials, including senior officials at the NNPC and its subsidiaries, to declare their assets, starting when they take office.
Establish more open, productive relationships with civil society and the media on oil sector issues.
Investigate and prosecute oil sector officials for misconduct while in office.
The new administration should require NNPC to meet clear performance benchmarks.”
