NNPC Restructuring: Northerners May Take Juicy Positions

BARRING unforeseen circumstances, drastic and sweeping changes are imminent in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Tribune has learnt.

Sources in the NNPC revealed that some powerful forces close to the corridors of power had submitted a proposal for the restructuring of the corporation to President Muhammadu Buhari for immediate implementation.

In the proposed arrangement, eight key northerners, mainly from the North-West and North-East geo-political zones, had been pencilled in for the proposed new structure, leaving out the four other zones in the country, Nigerian Tribune learnt.

The developments is already creating ripples within and outside the NNPC, just as sources said some top members of the corporation, as well as stakeholders, were unhappy with the proposal.

Findings by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that in the proposed new structure, key positions such as Group Executive Directors (GED) and other strategic ones, which include that of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), as well as the position of the Managing Director and Group General Manager for the Crude Oil Marketers Division (COMD), have been zoned to the North, leaving out the oil producing zones.

Nigerian Tribune also gathered that some powerful forces that included a new governor in one of the core states in the North were believed to be leading in lobbying President Buhari to approve the new structure.

In the proposed structure, Dr. M.K. Baru from Bauchi, a former Group General Manager of NAPIMS, one of the subsidiaries of the NNPC, is believed to have been pencilled in for the position of Group Managing Director of the corporation, while Alhaji Sa’adi Farouk, who hails from Sokoto State in another proposed structure, is to be made the GMD, same as Isa Mohammed Inuwa, whose background is in Accounting and currently the Deputy Managing Director/Chief Executive Office of Nigeria LNG Limited.

Inuwa, who is from Kano, had worked at the NNPC for over eight years and held various posts that included Group General Manager, Corporate Audit, General Manager, Budget and Projects, General Manager Finance, NAPIMS.

With the proposed structure, qualified contenders from other zones of the country for the GMD position had been shut out, sources said.

An oil expert from the South-South zone, Oscar Oti Abuam, told the Nigerian Tribune that the proposal did not take into cognisance the complex nature of the Nigerian state, particularly when considered against the backdrop that oil is mainly from the South- South.

“Nigerians voted for change, irrespective of religion and or ethnic background. NNPC remains the cash cow for sustaining the economy and any attempt to implement such will affect the economy terribly,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Crude Workers of Nigeria has alleged that the new proposal was nothing short of marginalisation.

According to it, the proposal negated President Buhari’s campaign promises, one of which was inclusivity in his administration.

It, therefore, called on the president to quash the proposal.