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Stakeholders urge NNPC’s new GMD to promote professionalism

By on August 13, 2015

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry have called on the newly-appointed Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to shun politics and embrace professionalism in the running of the affairs of the national oil company.
Speaking separately to journalists at the 2015 conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Lagos, some of the oil and gas industry experts also cautioned against undue political interference in the running of NNPC.
They also hailed Kachikwu’s appointment because of his vast wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry.
According to them, his appointment was a reminder of Nigeria’s military era when professionals and competent individuals were appointed ‎to key positions in the country.
They argued that the frequent change of GMDs, which characterised former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, hampered the growth and vision of the petroleum industry.
President of Nigeria Association for Energy Economics (NAEE), Professor Wumi Iledare urged Kachikwu not to regard himself as the alpha and omega of the corporation but as a‎ team player with the Group Executive Directors (GEDs).
Iledare said that the governance of ExxonMobil is different from NNPC, adding that Kachikwu should be patient to learn the way the national company is run.
“He has what he could bring to the table and he should let the government know that if they want him to govern NNPC the way Exxon Mobil council works, then there must be less political interference.  The reason am saying this is that government should not allow him lose sight of the experiences he has gained otherwise he is not going to do any thing better and it begins from his selection of GEDs and he must follow the Exxon Mobil structure whereby it is not hierarchical but more as a team player.  He should look at himself as the leader of the team and allow the professional GEDs to do their professional work and as the GMD he deals with the overall policy, taking the vision of NNPC to a higher and brighter level,”  Iledare explained.
He described the sack of the eight Group Executive Directors as an excellence move that would avoid waste in the system.

“I am hoping that government has given him a key performance indicator to measure his success and I hope that he has given government some terms whereby he could work. It begins with the formation of the NNPC board of directors. If he wants to functions the way he functioned in Mobil, then the board of Directors must be un-political. Saudi Arabia just did theirs by separating Saudi Aramco from the ministry of petroleum,” he added.

 

[ThisDay]