Minister of State for Petroleum Resources , Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
According to The New Telegraph,
the underlying reasons the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ,
Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, was removed as the Group Managing Director of the
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), after serving in that
capacity for a period of 11 months was because of the reforms he
introduced in the sector.
Armed with private sector experience , Kachikwu, on assumption of
office, introduced some swift reforms geared towards the restructuring
of the NNPC , the resuscitation of the refineries, and deregulation of
the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
The report reveals that he also sought to introduce transparency
and accountability in the huge oil corporation in such a way that each
subsidiary would be required to render profit and loss accounts at the
end of each fiscal year.
As a result, various interest groups felt threatened by these
reforms. Sunday Telegraph learnt that Kachikwu had to give way because,
apart from the abnormality in one person holding the two strategic
positions, he was too fast and reform-minded for the NNPC and ruffled
not a few feathers while he held sway as the NNPC boss.
An oil industry source told Sunday Telegraph that the first factor
that led to his exit was that it was not legal for one person to be the
Minister of Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of NNPC, at
the same time.
“It was an anomaly and supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
It was not supposed have lasted that long. In addition, he brought
private sector initiatives into a largely conservative and bureaucratic
system. Normally , reforms will be resisted by those used to the old
system.
"But one of the things he didn't do well was not carrying the people along.
“There was a lot of disenchantment in the system because of the sweeping reforms Kachikwu tried to introduce .
"The ‘indigenous NNPC staff’ said they were not carried along .
He brought in a lot of strange people, a lot of new ideas and these
were coming a bit too fast. Civil servants are usually conservative
people, so when they do not understand what you are doing or where you
are going , they will ask all sorts of questions. What is this man
doing? You want to destroy the system? You want to destroy our NNPC?
"How can he make this man a General Manager when he just finished school 10 years ago? All those things are bound to be there .
“He ought to have been a bit gradual in introducing those
reforms , but he was working on timelines that were too fast for the
system. He was in a hurry because he knew that he was not supposed to
occupy those two positions for a long time ,” the source said.
Although Kachikwu remains the boss of the oil industry, there are
indications that his current position as Minister of State may not give
him the full powers to drive the series of reforms he introduced into
the system. His successor , the newly appointed Group Managing Director
of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Dr . Maikanti Kacalla
Baru, has assumed office and pledged to carry on with the reforms of his
predecessor.
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