Kachikwu’s Fate

•Questions arise about his new role and the composition of the new NNPC board

Oil has been a special part of the Nigerian story in the past few months. Not because of the plummeting prices of crude oil or the defaced environment slick with spills. It is because of the rampaging Niger Delta Avengers who have manifested their disenchantment blowing up pipelines and reducing our capacity to profit from the upsurge in global oil prices.

But last week a trend that has attracted criticism over President Buhari’s style of government has spilled over to the oil industry. The president appointed a new board for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Highlighting that announcement was the appointment of a new managing director in Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru. That decision defrocks Dr. Ibe Kachikwu of that position, which leaves him as the minister of state for petroleum.

The following names, announced to the board, have raised a question of balance and sensitivity on the part of President Buhari: Mallam Abba Kyari, who is also the president’s chief of staff; Dr. Thomas M.A. John, Dr. Pius O Akinyelure, Dr. Tajudeen Umar, Mallam Mohammed Umar Lawal and Mallam Yusuf Lawal.

First, Baru’s replacement of Kachikwu implies that Kachikwu would not only not run the NNPC behemoth but will now only act on the behest of the president who doubles as petroleum minister. Some analysts have expressed the worry that since Baru will report to the president, Kachikwu’s position runs the risk of being sinecure. The position of minister of state has tended to be sinecure because it often exists as pork and to satisfy appetites for ethnic, religious and political inclusion rather than need.

What worried the Nigerian society more was the skewed nature of the board. Of the six names on the board, only one is regarded as belonging to the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta. That name is Dr. Thomas John. The others are either from the southwest or the north. In fact, if we add the managing director, it is a northern affair.

For quite some months, the nation has been held captive by the turbulence in the Niger Delta, and efforts to pacify them have had very suspect success. By some accounts, there are efforts to bring the insurgents to a negotiating table, although the rhetoric of the president has been quite ambivalent. But the Avengers are only a part of the narrative of alienation in the region.

Since the days of Adako Boro, the region has not muted its outcry for its residents to enjoy the oil that comes from the bowel of their earth. Granted that the governments of the region, whether state or local governments or even interventions like the Niger Delta Development Commission, have also sharply fallen short of local expectations, the Federal Government ought not to compound it.

The region suffers, for most part, from collusion between oil firms and the political elite in Abuja to determine the fates of their citizens. It is in that context that this new raft of NNPC appointees is viewed. It is also curious that the president could appoint Abba Kyari, his chief of staff, as a member of the board. The nation needs to know why. Kyari’s job as the president’s closest staff should not only be enough for one man but compels him look at all departments of government with even judgment.

The regional tilt of the appointments followed outcry over Buhari’s security appointments, especially in the aftermath of the new posting of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris. Against the background of the calls for restructuring and fairness in the country, the presidency ought to be careful not to inflame divisive passions.